The Blond and The Ginger
by TheHangingBracelet
Summary: Ginny and Draco get caught up in a series of pranks. Blaise is attracted to Ginny's best friend Emily. But with a Harry in the equation, will it be easy for him? Add to this mess, the new rules of the House Cup which force the Gryffindor and Slytherins to work together, and you have a story! (Story gets better later on) (House Cup rules in Ch 10 but read in order) ON TEMP HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1: The Challenge

Disclaimer:(Start Song)

I don't own Harry Potter

I'm just a jobless rotter.

I think JKR has a daughter.

Hermione's patronus is an otter.

(End Song)

There is a reason I'm writing prose and not poetry.

**XXXXXXXXX**

She could see his blond head sticking out among the group of Slytherin seventh years he was standing in. It certainly wasn't hard to miss that shade of yellow anywhere. He might as well patent it and stick his name on it.

He threw his head back and laughed. It looked like one of his friends was narrating a very funny incident to him, although the boy himself didn't seem to think there was anything particularly hilarious about it. She was pretty sure the other boy's name was Blaise.

She was walking out of the Great Hall with her friend Emily after dinner when she realized the group of boys were blocking the entrance. Both of them stopped and expectantly waited for the dunderheads to realise that they didn't own Hogwarts nor the corridor.

They could easily hear the conversation and Draco Malfoy was the one speaking now.

"Blaise, you've got to realise that girls are like brooms. You've got to treat them right or at least make them feel like they're being treated right unless you want a nasty situation on your hands", he said, adding a wink.

Crabbe and Goyle , though not the brightest of bulbs,were listening intently now as they had picked up that Draco was talking about a subject, that neither of them had any luck with.

" For example, you probably shouldn't have said to Laura that you didn't want to meet her on the seventh floor tonight so directly. You could have saved yourself that black eye you're sporting."

It was true. Blaise left eye did look swollen and was slightly purple.

Blaise just grumbled in response.

Malfoy continued nevertheless, "You should have said that you had an extremely important essay to write for your job interview with the curse-breaker goblins or something like that. That would have hinted a) You couldn't help it b) she's lucky to even have you talking to her. " Draco started to count off on his fingers to make his point.

"I mean, look at it from her point of view. How many girls have boyfriends who are going to become professional curse-breakers after Hogwarts?"

He didn't stop just yet. " You see, you've got to learn from someone like me. There's a not a girl that wouldn't fall for me if I set my mind on getting her". He finished with a smug crocodile-like grin on his face.

Blaise just rolled his eyes.

Ginny and Emily were still in the corridor unnoticed by the gang of boys but that wasn't for long.

"Oi, Malfoy! Did I just hear you say you could get _any _girl in Hogwarts?", Ginny asked with an innocent sounding voice.

Draco looked around to see who called his name. _Oh great, it's the carrot-head, he thought._"What do you want, Weasley?And yeah, you heard right. Why, are you interested?", he drawled.

Ginny just wanted to get that smug look off his face. " We'll, since you said it yourself, I'll give you a challenge. I want you to impress Parvati and get a kiss on the cheek from her within a week. If you win, I'll wear Slytherin green for a whole week."

_Hmm, that can't be too hard. After all, I am the Slytherin Prince Charming. And it would be nice to see the Weasley girl wear our house colours for a week. Imagine what her dumb brother would say if he saw his precious little sister in Slytherin colours for a week. That would be epic!There's no way I'd miss such an easy opportunity like this! , _Draco thought. "

"Okay Ginger, you've got yourself a deal. But let's up the game, shall we? If I win, you have to proclaim to the school at breakfast that you've had a crush on me since second year and you were only with Potter this long to make me notice you and become jealous." , Draco challenged.

Emily looked between the two with wary eyes, she didn't like what was going on, but she agreed that someone would have to pull Draco off his high-horse sooner or later.

The stakes were high, but knowing the information she had, there was no way Ginny was going to back down. But she was going add a little something of her own first.

"Fine, the deal's on. But only if you agree to do the same if you lose. Announce that you've been in love with Hermione, and were trying to get her jealous by asking out Parvati. Still interested, Malfoy?"

"You're on."

"Your week starts tomorrow, that is Friday"

"I know the days of the week, Weaselette"

"Really? Now that's a surprise." Ginny acted shocked.

Crabbe and Goyle flexed their arms threateningly behind Malfoy. Blaise just looked amused.

"Har har, Weasley. Now get out of my way".

"With pleasure." With that, Ginny pushed her way through Crabbe and Goyle and marched up the steps on the right.

"You know, if he does win, you're not just risking your dignity with our fellow housemates, but there's also the possibility of Parvati getting hurt.", cautioned Emily as they made their way to their Common Room.

Emily wasn't too fond of the Slytherins and was rather intimidated by the ones older than her, although she'd never admit that to anyone. After all, she was a Gryffindor, she shouldn't be scared of some pesky boys. Right?

"Haha, don't worry about that! Let me explain." Ginny laughed.

When she told Emily what she knew, Emily's eyes grew wide and she burst out laughing. She actually had to stop and catch her breath on the staircase.

The portraits around here were giving her weird stares. Ginny could have sworn she heard one of them mutter something about young ladies not being brought up proper these days, and laughing like donkeys in public.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley, you are one sly, conniving witch! Malfoy won't know what hit him tomorrow, if he tries any funny business with Parvati.", Emily gasped between breaths.

Ginny just grinned mischievously though her eyes twinkled and the girls continued on the way to Gryffindor Tower.

XXXxXxXxXxXxXxXXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXxX

A/N: Hey guys! This is my first fanfic, so tell me what you think. . Oh and please leave reviews! Thanks for reading. Second chapter will be up in about 2-3 days. :)


	2. Chapter 2: The Attempt

_Disclaimer:_

_( Start Song)_

_I don't own Harry Potter_

_Im just a jobless rotter._

_I think JKR has a daughter._

_Hermione's patronus is an otter._

_(End song)_

_There is a reason I write prose, not poetry._

_A/N : I'd first like to give a shout out to my lovely reviewers Marinka and Nutmeg44. And without further ado, the second chapter._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a bright morning when Ginny woke up.

"Ginny! We're going to be late if you don't hurry!" called out Emily.

"Five more minutes, please..." grumbled Ginny. She never was a morning person.

Then she remembered about Malfoy's challenge and as quick as lightning ran to the bathroom to get ready for the day. If Malfoy was going to try anything at breakfast, she, sure as hell, didn't want to miss it.

She got ready in no time flat. Even Emily was surprised at how quickly she was done.

"Come on, Em, I don't want to miss anything Draco does!"

"But you don't even know if he's going to do anything today!" Emily shouted as Ginny almost dragged her to the Great Hall.

"Remember the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin is exactly a week from now. Malfoy going to try to finish off his challenge today itself, so that I would have to wear Slytherin green at the match!"

"Do you really think he's thought that far ahead?" Emily asked sceptically.

"Of course. He's Malfoy." Ginny simply stated and dragged Emily out the dorm door.

They entered the Great Hall. Despite the great rush they were in, there were a sizeable amount of students already in here.

Ginny scanned around. She saw what she was looking for. The pale blond mop of hair was already having breakfast.

"Look, Parvati hasn't come yet. Now at least, can we start walking instead of sprinting?" questioned Emily.

Although Emily too was excited to see what would happen this morning, her first priority was to not get killed by tripping over a first year on the way to the Great Hall.

"Imagine what my parents would say if you had to tell them I died in a tragic accident on my to breakfast. I'm their only child, they'd be devastated." Emily dramatically told Ginny.

Ginny stuck her tongue out at her best friend.

"We weren't running. We were walking at a slightly faster rate than normal."

They sat down at the table. Ginny saw her brother, Harry, and Hermione sitting not too far from them.

Harry said hi to them. Ron and Hermione were bickering about something, like usual.

"I've told you a million times Ron, if you paid more attention to the homework planner I got you, _maybe _you'd get it done on time!"

"But, I swear, Hermione, the thing doesn't like me! It keeps shouting insults and making fun of me!"

Harry started coughing to hide his laughter.

"You have to be nice to it! You have build a strong relationship with it based on trust by writing down your homework every day, and sticking to that schedhule!"

"You make it sound like a woman!"

"Because it is! Have you forgotten its name! It's Linda!"

Harry started choking now, he was having trouble hiding his laughter.

Ginny started giggling as well, but stopped as soon as Hermione gave her a glare. Emily just smiled and shook her head.

"Will they ever get together?" Emily asked Harry.

"I have nooo idea." Harry shrugged.

At that moment Emily saw Lavender leading Parvati to the Gryffindor table. Emily poked Ginny and pointed.

Both the girls sat down. Parvati had dark circles under her eyes and it was evident that she had been crying. In fact she looked ready to burst into tears any moment.

"There, there, it's gonna be okay. That boy doesn't know what he's missing." soothed Lavender.

"But I miss Terry. And his smile. And his looks. And his blond hair. I'm telling you I'm never going to date a guy with blond hair EVER AGAIN! " wailed Parvati.

"First it was Micheal, then it was Adam, and then Daniel, and now Terry to boot. (_A/N: sorry, I couldn't resist the pun. ;) _And they were ALL blondes!" She sniffled.

"I'm done with BLONDS!" And with that Parvati slammed her hand down on the table.

Emily looked at Ginny with meaningful eyes while Ginny just snickered.

"You forgot to tell me, yesterday, how you got to know about this" Emily asked Ginny.

"When I went back up to get my sweater before dinner, she was crying in the dorm. You didn't need Extendable Ears to hear through the dorm what she was saying." Ginny replied with a wry smile.

_(Flashback*:_

_"Em, I'll be back in two seconds, I have to get my sweater"_

_"Okay" replied Emily and watched Ginny scurry up the stairs._

_Ginny went quickly to the sixth year' dorm and grabbed her blue sweater knitted by her mother and exited. As she was walking past the seventh year's dorm, she heard loud crying. Curious as to who was upset, she stood outside and listened._

_Parvati was obviously slightly tipsy._

_" Shtupid Terry and his shtupid brown eyes. His shtupid long eyelashes are soo shtupid. And let's not forget about his shtupidly good smelling cologne." She paused to hiccup_

_"Yes, Parv, I know that he''s stupid. Now, don't you think its time you should lay off the Firewhiskey bottle." Lavender was obviously trying her best to get the liquor bottle out out of Parvati's hand from the sound off all the shuffling._

_"Noooo. I want my shtupid whiskey. And don't you lay a finger on my shtupid alcohol! Go get dumped by your shtupid boyfriend like I did and maybe I'll give you a drop. But just a drop, mind you."_

_Lavender made a frustrated sound but Parvati seemed to have paid no attention._

_" Now where wazh I?" Parvati hiccuped again._

_"Right. I was about to say something about his shtupid blond hair but I forgot what I wanted to say."_

_There was a moment of silence._

_" Oh, I remember! His blond hair is soooo shtupid. There I've said it. You know what, lav-lav? I give up on BLONDS! I've made up my mind. I hate BLONDS."_

_Parvati hiccuped and started giggling uncontrollably._

_" I hate blonds! I hate blonds! " she said in a sing song voice._

_Ginny had heard enough and made her way back down._

_When Emily asked her why she was smiling as she came back down the steps, she dismissed it as nothing important._

_*Flashback ends)_

"Ssshh now. It's okay." Lavender had dark circles under her eyes as well. She had been doing this since last evening when Terry broke up with Parvati. She was exhausted but she knew it was her duty as Parvati's best friend.

There was a period of silence ,with occasional sniffling from Parvati, while the rest ate their breakfast.

Draco Malfoy chose this moment to walk over.

He looked at Ginny as he made his way with a smug grin as if to suggest she was about to lose the challenge.

"Hello Patil, you know there's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. I was wondering if you would like to join me." He flashed her a brilliant smile, and audible sighs could be heard from the girls at the Ravenclaw table.

_C'mon girl, just say yes, and give me a peck on the cheek and this will be all over_ ...

Parvati froze. Her fork was in mid-air between her mouth and her plate. She slowly set her fork down and turned to look at Malfoy.

She glanced at his head.

Her icy stare should have told him already.

"NO I WILL NOT GO TO HOGSMEADE WITH YOU! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, GOLDILOCKS,!"

She was shouting at the top of her voice and certainly had the attention of the Ravenclaw table where Terry Boot was sitting.

Parvati was beside herself and stomped her way out of the Great Hall.

_What just happened?_, Draco asked himself. Evidently, his confusion showed on his face, because Lavender quickly xplained about Terry, his blond hair, and Parvati's mission against blonds now. Lavender then hurried out to find out where Parvati had gone.

Draco still looked horrified because of what turned to Ginny and Emily who were both shaking with laughter.

" You knew, didn't you?" He sneered with threatening eyes.

"I _might _have heard Parvati say something about her break-up with Terry. Sorry I forgot to tell you ,Malfoy"

You humiliated me, fool!" His ego had definitely been bruised by Parvati's little outburst.

Ginny raised her eyebrows. "Oh, but I thought I heard you say you could get _any _girl in Hogwarts, Mr. Dashing"

He clenched his fists but Draco knew he couldn't do anything in front of all the teachers.

"Oh, I'll make you pay, Weasley." He spat.

"You'd have to get through me first, Malfoy." retorted Emily.

Draco looked at Emily as if he had never seen her before. To be fair, that might have been the first time she opened her mouth in front of him. Emily threateningly glared towards him and Draco actually gulped once before speaking.

"It's none of your business, Pramett, It's between Ginger and I here."

"The name's Pratcher, ferret and if it involves her, it involves me."

"Anyway, you still have to do the punishment.", Ginny interjected with a grin.

"And what if I decide I don't want to do it." Draco narrowed his eyes at Ginny, pleased that he had found a loophole.

"Oh, I had anticipated that earlier, Malfoy, so I made it magically binding." said Emily smugly.

"You what?!"

"So you're going to _have _to do it, Malfoy"

"I still have a week."

"Well, the clock's ticking, Malfoy"

Malfoy spun and strode out the doors of the Great Hall. Blaise got up from the Slytherin table and followed him, evidently curious as to what had made Parvati shout like that.

"What was the ferret doing at our table, Gin?" Ron asked angrily.

"Oh, nothing. He wanted to talk to Parvati, that's all."

"I don't want him talking to you, Ginny"

"Yes, mum". With that she rolled her eyes and continued to eat her breakfast.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N: Heya! I hope you liked this chapter. In the next one, I'm gonna add a bit of a background story, so you guys know what's happening in the wizarding world. :)

I'd like to thank all the people who followed my story as well as my reviewers once more. You guys are awesome!

So, if you read this chapter and liked it, leave a review! Heck, even if you didn't, leave a review! Until next time, ciao!


	3. Chapter 3: The Confession

A/N:

_(background info:)_

_Okay, so this is basically a no-strings attached fic. Voldemort died when he tried to kill Harry on that day ages ago. The wizarding world is at peace. All main personality traits of characters are more or less same. Draco is cocky, Crabbe and Goyke are dumb, etcetera etcetera . I could probably write about a better background story involving Voldy but the war doesn't play a major part in the story._

_Kapish?_

_Moving on..._

**XXXXXXXXXXX**

It was the last day of Draco's challenge. To his chagrin, he wasn't having much luck. No matter how many times he tried to stop Parvati int he hallway, she just pointed her nose up in the air and walked away before he could even get a word out, usually muttering something about blonds. That is if he wasn't already in the Hospital Wing due to a well-placed jinx by Patil.

Unfortunately, the name Goldilocks stuck and it seemed like no one was going to let him forget about it anytime soon.

He even considered dying his hair brown just to win over Parvati but then his ego decided he wasn't going to stoop to such levels. Nope, not he!

Ginny remembered that today was the last day Draco had to win, and was secretly pleased, as it was pretty obvious he was getting nowhere with this dare.

As he walking out of the Great Hall after lunch that day, he stopped him.

"Oi, Goldilocks! Remember the date today?"

Draco clenched his jaw and spun slowly to face Ginny. Ginny stood up a bit straighter to show she wasn't intimidated by his height which made him about a foot taller than her.

"Yes, I remember the date, Weasel. Come to rub it in my face?"

"Of course not, Malfoy. Now why would I do that?". She blinked her eyelashes in an innocent manner.

She then continued, "You see, I just wanted to give you a friendly reminder because we both know the consequences..." . Her eyes were twinkling with mirth by now.

"Thanks. I didn't need it.", he replied sarcastically and left.

It was dinnertime and Draco failed. He knew it and decided it was best to just own up to it.

_If only it wasn't for my big mouth..._he thought to himself ruefully.

"Maaalfoy! Don't forget what you have to do tomorrow!", Ginny winked at him before leaving the Hall.

* * *

It was the day.

_I think I'm going to be sick, _Draco thought.

He walked up to the front of the Great Hall.

"LISTEN UP!", he shouted over the din of breakfast chatter.

In a few seconds, everyone fell silent. Emily and Ginny had their full attention on Malfoy, and the rest of the Gryffindors along with the the whole school were curious as to what the Slytherin Prince had to say.

Malfoy gulped.

"Iminlovewithhermionegrangerandhavebeeninlovewithh ersince firstyearandhaveonlybeenfoll owingParvatiaroundtotryandma keherjealous."

He turned and left the Great Hall.

There was complete silence for the exact duration of a half second. Then the whole room burst into chatter.

Not many people understood what Malfoy had said, but the few who got the gist of it quickly explained to their friends and soon it was all over the school, that Malfoy was in love with the Gryffindor brainiac, Hermione Granger.

When Ron got to know what Malfoy had said, he promptly turned redder than his hair and started spluttering.

"How dare he...stupid idiot...egoist...him and Hermione...I'm going to vomit...he's going to regret this...HIM AND HERMIONE?...I'm going to be sick..."

Hermione on the other hand was as cool as a cucumber, " Ron, would you please calm down. It's obvious it was a dare!"

"How do _you know?",_he asked suspiciously.

"Simple. Because he didn't make eye contact with me. Now if you would hurry up eating, we can start our N.E.W.T preparation." Her eyes lit up at this prospect.

Harry just groaned.

"Wait, not soo fast. If it was a dare, then who put him up to it?". Ron wasn't ready to leave this topic.

Ginny shifted uncomfortably in her seat, a fact which did not go unnoticed by Harry.

"Was it you?", he quietly whispered to Ginny.

She nodded.

"But why?". His green eyes were searching her face for an answer but Ginny was looking down.

"He was boasting the other day about being oh so charming, so Gin dared him to make Parvati fall for him in a week, if not confess his undying love for Hermione.", Emily explained unabashedly.

Harry looked at her for a moment, and then broke out laughing. Ron looked at him funny.

"What's so funny, Harry?". Harry coughed and said it was nothing.

When no one was looking, he said " Good one, you two!"

Ginny looked up relieved that he hadn't thought her a bad friend to involve Hermione in one of her dares and grinned.

Emily gave Harry a high five under the table and winked.

Harry blushed.

Ginny noticed and sighed, looking back at her plate. It was obvious he wasn't interested in her anymore, and that was what made him break up with her last year. They still remained good friends. Though, Ginny still had trouble moving on, she was making good progress recently. She had accepted Micheal Corner's invitation to Hogsmeade after Emily forced her to, saying that she wasn't going out nearly as much as she ought to. Surprisingly, Ginny was warming up to the idea more and more.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Slytherins were getting ready for their first class of the day, Potions.

Blaise was with Draco in their Common Room, waiting while Draco added the finishing touches to his Potions essay.

"I never knew you were type to fall for bushy hair and brains, Malfoy." Blaise said with a grin.

" Shut it"

"I mean, who knew you had it in you?", Blaise continued with the same grin on.

"Shut it."

"Oh, I smell romance in the air and unrequited love!", sang Blaise in a high voice.

"Shut it."

"Don't worry, I promise to get you two the complete set of the Encyclopedia Brittanica: Wizards Deluxe Edition for your wedding! How 'bout that?"

"Shut it."

Draco had finished his essay by now, and got up. He checked for ink stains and was pleased to find that there were none.

He looked at Blaise who was surprised to find that Draco had a smile on his face.

"Whatcha smiling 'bout? Shouldn't you be crying because of all the public humiliation?", asked Blaise, sincerely confused.

"I would if I didn't have an amazing prank to pull on the Weasel and her sidekick Prafer or Pratter, whatever her name was."

"You mean Pratcher."

Draco raised an eyebrow at Blaise and asked,"How do _you _know?"

"That doesn't matter. So what's the plan?", Blaise asked as they stepped through the Slytherin portrait hole.

"It's going to be a surprise, my boy. But trust me, it's going to be epic!"

Blaise knew that the wicked grin on Draco's face didn't bode well for the two Gryffindor a typical Slytherin, he was always up for pranks, especially on the Gryffindorks, but this time the girl with the black hair, caught his eye.

Emily Pratcher.

That was what was written on her bag. Pretty one, she was. Shame she was in Gryffindor.

Having thought that, he couldn't care less what happened to her red-head friend.

Blaise once had a crush on Ginny, which was quickly stamped out when he overheard her talking about him to her friends. She called him a _doppelgänger for one of her uncles who died of insanity only with dreadlocks and dark skin. _Blaise never quite forgave her for that.

Draco was also lost in his thoughts like Blaise, as they dropped into their seats in the Potions dungeon.

"Zabini and Malfoy, snap out of your daydreams and pay attention to the class!" Snape commanded when he saw the faraway look on both their faces.

"Yes, sir", both grumbled and sat up straighter.

"Of course, I understand if you're a bit preoccupied today, Malfoy having heard your confession this morning", Snape told Draco with a smirk on his face.

Draco felt like hitting his forehead against something. It was going to be a mighty long day.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

A/N: You know the drill! Like it or not, leave a review!

And I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart, all my reviewers and all my followers! You guys made my day :)


	4. Chapter 4 : The Encounter

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

Emily was walking back from the library alone. She had been finishing up a Potions essay, while Ginny had to go for Quidditch practice. The game was tomorrow and Harry was driving the team to practice relentlessly. She sure was glad she didn't choose to tryout for the team this year.

It was late in the evening and nearing curfew. Filch would be prowling around anytime now. As far as she knew, she was the only student still out in the halls. The shadows cast on the walls by the torches on the side were quite unsettling when walking.

With that in mind, she clutched her bag to her small frame closer and started walking quickly.

As she was turning the corner, she walked straight into someone. She slammed against his broad shoulders and had the wind knocked out of her.

"Oof!" "Ouch!"

She swayed on the spot unsteadily.

Two hands came to rest firmly on her shoulders in an effort to steady her.

"Are you okay?", asked a slightly gruff voice.

Emily looked up dazed and immediately took a step back, when she saw who it was.

"I'm fine. No thanks to you, Zabini", she replied pointedly.

"Woah there, Pratcher, It's not my fault you can't look where you're going.", he shrugged and the added " I was only trying to be polite by asking."

Emily narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow at Blaise.

"Slytherins being polite? That's like saying McGonagall is laid-back." She commented dryly.

Blaise chuckled.

" It's not my fault, gits like Malfoy give our whole house a bad name."

"Nice of you to call him that when he's your best friend.",she observed.

"Of course he's my friend. But he's also a git. And I've told him that to his face as well, before."

"I imagine it didn't go over too well with him, did it?"

"No. You can't say it did.", he gave her another smile which Emily returned shyly.

Suddenly she snapped back to reality. A Slytherin smiling? At her? And that too, Draco's best friend? The founders of Hogwarts were probably rolling over in their graves.

"Well Zabini, if you would move to the side, I have a dorm to get to.", she told him in a rather McGonagall like fashion.

Zabini frowned at the sudden change in Emily's tone. They had been having a semi decent conversation.

_Girls_, he sighed and had to refrain from rolling his eyes in an un-gentlemanly manner.

A voice rang through the corridor.

"Well now, Mrs. Norris, what do you hear? I hear students out of bed after curfew! Come now, lets catch them and report them to Dumbledore, maybe this time he'll let me use the chain and whip" They heard Filch start to cackle uncontrollably.

They looked at each other horrified. Filch was around the corner and had heard them too.

"Quick, follow me", and with that Emily grabbed Blaise and dragged him into a secret alcove somewhere off the far end of the corridor.

They squeezed into the tiny space. There was hardly any room between them. Blaise could feel her breath on his neck due to their differences in heights.

"Who knew the good little Gryffindor would know secret alcoves off the main corridors of Hogwarts. Been up to naughty stuff, have we?", he asked in whispers.

Emily blushed but retained her composure, nevertheless thankful that it was dark where they were standing.

" Would you rather be out there then, Zabini? I'm sure you could have a nice little chat with Filch as to why you dropped a pack of dung bombs on the fifth floor last week."

"How do you know that it was us?"

"Who else would be stupid enough to detonate them right before the lunch break started?"

Blaise made an annoyed sound.

"But we didn't get caught, did we?", he challenged Emily.

"That's only because Filch's IQ level is lower than even yours, which is saying something, let me assure you." she added with a grin.

Blaise just looked annoyed.

He was about to retort, when they both heard Filch close-by.

"Now now , they have to be around here somewhere. Can't have gone far, the demons. Oh, they think its funny to scrub the floors day in and day out, do they? Well, lets see how much it is when they have to do it for detention!".

He sounded more gleeful than a person had right to.

Emily and Blaise both prayed that Filch wouldn't find them. They were in a rather compromising posture, with their bodies pretty much flat against each other, and heads twisted to each side, so they wouldn't be smothered by the other.

Emily could definitely feel the muscle under Blaise's shirt from such a close distance. His body heat was radiating against the skin on her arms but oddly, she didn't mind it that much.

_Bad thoughts, Emily, stop thinking about his body!, _she thought to himself.

Blaise could feel Emily's body rising against his and then dropping again as she took in quiet breaths. Usually, whenever he was this close to a girl, they were more often than not in a bed.

He quietly groaned. _Don't think about that right now Blaise! You do NOT want to have an awkward moment right now!_

Luckily Filch passed by them, still muttering about disobedient students. He had obviously not seen the alcove.

As soon as they were sure Filch was one for good, they both heaved sighs of relief and stepped out.

Emily's face was slightly flushed and though you couldn't see them being so, Blaise's cheeks were also heated.

Blaise couldn't resist the opportunity to tease her. "So Pratcher, after that lovely encounter we've just had, will I be appearing in the next edition of your daydreams?", he asked cheekily.

"You wish, Zabini."

"After all, you can't find many male specimens as fine as me 'round Hogwarts.", he added with a wink, undeterred.

She groaned at the awful boast and rolled her eyes at him.

_What has gotten into these Slytherins and since when have they gotten so damn playful? Poor guy must not get out a lot. _Emily thought wryly.

Emily quickly made to push past him but Blaise grabbed her wrist.

"What do you want now, Zabini? Let me go!".

"Wait", he breathed.

The little imp with her long, shiny, black hair had captivated him and he knew he had fallen for her.

Pretty badly, he might as well add.

Emily looked at him, waiting for him to speak again. Her hazel eyes were fixed on his.

" Draco is trying to get his revenge on Ginny. You better watch out.", he blurted.

"Why are you telling me this?", she asked suspiciously.

"Because...I just wanted to be nice."

Emily's eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline at his confession.

"Okay...I'll be on my guard."

Blaise just nodded.

He already regretted telling her about Malfoy's prank. Draco would kill him if he found out that Blaise had forewarned Emily, and indirectly Ginny as well.

Emily took two steps backwards and turned around.

Blaise watched her leave. Her hair swung as she walked and he could hear the echo sound of her footsteps falling.

He shook himself as if from a dream and went back to his Common Room.

He had a lot to think about this evening.

* * *

Meanwhile, Harry was looking all over the school for Emily. It was late when the Gryffindor Quidditch team returned to the Common Room and he and the rest of his team members were quite tired out.

However, when Ginny had found out that Emily still hadn't returned to the Common Room, she had been quite worried and asked Harry to help find where she was. Harry didn't need much convincing, and soon they split up outside the Potrait Hole to look for Em in different directions.

He was walking down a long corridor when he heard Emily's voice. And then he heard Zabini's.

He halted.

They were talking but he couldn't make out the words.

From the sound of Emily's footsteps, she was finished chatting and was walking his way.

She turned the corner and her face lit up at the sight of Harry's.

"Hullo, Harry. Practice over?", she asked with a casual wave.

"Yes. What are you doing out so late? Ginny was worried about you?", he asked roughly.

She hadnt been expecting that tone of voice and shrunk back slightly.

"I was just coming back from the library and was on my back to the Common Room"

"Then what was the conversation with Zabini about then?, he asked accusingly.

Even he was surprised by how snappish he sounded but the little green monster lodged firmly in the pit of his stomach urged him on.

"Oh nothing, I just ran into him."

"Then we had good cause to worry about you. What if the slimy little Slytherin did something to you?", he demanded angrily.

Emily was taken aback. Harry never spoke to her like this.

"I'm fine, aren't I? Im not the smartest witch in the sixth year for nothing! What is with people thinking I'm still a small little girl? I can take care of myself quite well, thank you very much."

She huffed angrily and strode out in front of him.

"And for your information, Zabini didn't try to do anything to me!"

He hadn't meant her to get mad at him.

"Wait Em!"

But she didn't listen and continued walking at a furious pace.

"Em, I'm sorry! I was just worried!"

She spun around.

"I'm not interested in your apologies, Potter. Save them for someone else!", she said coldly.

_Oh, what have I gotten myself into now?_, Harry thought to himself, worriedly.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N: Thank you to all my lovely reviewers! You guys mean the world!**

**Do a fellow author a good deed, and leave a review please! If you're a lazy person like me, all you gotta type is:**

**Hi!**

**I liked/disliked your fic.**

**See? I made it even simpler for you guys! Just copy and paste into the review box. Now there's NO excuse for not reviewing! ;) **

**Now that I've become an author, I realise just how much reviews mean to people. So if you like, you can leave the name of a fic you want me to review in the review box, and i promise I'll leave a review at your fic too! Even more reason to review now! :D **

**Review mine, I'll review yours! **

**Oh and constructive criticism is also appreciated folks!**

**THANK YOU FOR READING! :D :D :D**

**-TheHangingBracelet**


	5. Chapter 5 : The Match

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

**XXXXXXXX**

The match was about to start.

Emily was sitting in the stands between Colin Creevey and Hermione and had her wand out in case Draco tried any funny business during the match.

However, she didn't tell Ginny what Blaise had told her the previous day because she didn't want her to freak out before the all-important game and she knew it would impossible for Draco to try anything under the watchful eyes of Madam Hooch along with the rest of the school.

Comforted by the thought, she sat back to enjoy the game.

Dean Thomas was doing the commentary and he was known for his sense of humor and his bias against Slytherin. It _had _ to be entertaining.

* * *

(**A/N: The match will be written in commentary form.)**

"Well folks, today's the day! Good vs. Evil! The Heroes vs. the Villains! Dorothy vs. the Wizard of O-"

"What's that's professor? Stop being...being...melodramatic?"

"Oh c'mon professor, it was just a bit of drama to spices things up."

"Oh, you're saying there's no need of for spice? But professor -"

"Yes, I understand professor. I am a unbiased commentator and not a baboon with a voice magnifying charm."

**"**Okay, back to the game."

"And here's come out the Gryffindor team...Weasley! Weasley! Robins! Bell! Coote! Peakes! Annnnnd Potter! Give it up for the lions! Rumour has it that they're the favourites to win the House Cup this year and rumour also has it that last years captain, Wood has been signed by Puddlemere United. Shame really, he could have easily gotten into the Tornadoes if he tried-"

"Yes professor?...no sidetracking? But the audience is going to get bored, prof-"

"I didn't quite catch what you were saying professor..."

"Oh right...back to the game."

" And as we can see folks, the Slytherin team has already shown up on the pitch having the extreme rudeness not to wait until the commentator called out their -"

"Hurry up with the actual commentary and not waste time, professor? But I was adding a bit of personal flair..."

"No, professor, I would not like detention."

"I'll get on with it and name the Slytherin team. This years roster includes Goldilocks, Zucchini, Unknown Chimpanzee 1, Unknown Chimpanzee 2, Unkn-"

"You're asking me to say their _actual _names proffesor? But I thought these suited them, better!

"Okay fine! Malfoy, Zabini, Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, Thames, and Walters are out on the pitch. Lets have a cheer for them."

" A short one, mind you."

"I wonder what the younger ones had to pay to get on the team, after all it seems to be tradition for the members of the squad to donate a generous amount in order to get a spot-"

"Yes, professor. Got it. No unconfirmed rumours to be stated."

"Back to the game!"

"Madam Hooch releases the ball, and play commences!"

"Ball goes to Goyle, who's playing Chaser for the snakes...and he promptly drops it, leaving play suspended. I'm not sure what Malfoy is thinking but if this is his new team's strategy, I think it's fair to say, it's a bad idea."

"Play resumes again and the ball goes to the lovely Demelza Robins, who is reportedly dating Cormac McLaggen who broke up last week with Nancy Hawkins because apparently she had a crush on Drew Hydrick the whole time, who was using Patty-"

"Yes, Professor McGonagall, I don't run the Hogwarts Love Gazette."

"C'mon, proffesor, I was showing my incredible breadth of knowledge in the love affairs of Hogw-"

"Holy Hippogriff, the Slytherin keeper Nott has actually saved a goal! In a record first for the hapless Slytherin keeper, he has actually managed to catch the ball before it went through the hoops! Although I think that has more to do with the fact that the Gryffindor chaser, Weasley threw it with her weak arm, and Nott just happened to be in the way of the Quaffle. Well, folks, it shows you that miracles can happen!"

"Yes Professor, I am not supposed to demoralise the other team."

"Oooh, that was a nasty bludger shot by Zabini at the Gryffindor seeker, Potter, who is arguably the best seeker the school has seen in a century."

"And play has been suspended, while Madam Pompfrey checks Potter over."

"Potter seems to be fine, from the way he's trying to get away from the school nurse..."

"Potter is back on his feet, and the game has been resumed!"

"And the lions prevail! Chaser Weasley has scored a goal, the first one of the match!"

"And we have another one! Weasley and Robins share a high five, while Bell is the remaining Gryffindor Chaser who hasn't scored a goal ye-"

"I almost spoke too soon. Bell has scored another one which makes the score 30 to nil!"

(20 minutes later)

"And yet another goal, folks. The score is 260 to nil. I have a sneaking feeling, Potter is letting the team Chasers have fun scoring goals while he half-heatedly searches for the snitch"

"And we have another goal! Nott might as well step aside for all the good he's doing."

"Really, he's a shame to the Firebolt he's sitting on right now. Speaking of Firebolts, they're soon to be made history, with the new collection of Orbitstreaks coming out this month, reportedly the fastest brooms ever mad-"

"Yes, professor, product endorsements are not allowed at Quidditch matches."

"The three Gryffindor chasers have stopped for a small chat in the middle of the field. You can't blame them for not being too worried about the other team scoring right now..."

"Oh look, in a gesture of kindness, the Gryffindor chaser Robins has given the Quaffle to Goyle...who drops the Quaffle again."

"Someone should really remind that boy that he's a Chaser."

"I'm pretty sure the audience out there, especially those decked out in green would like to see this match end soo-"

"It looks like the Snitch has been spotted! Potter streaks across the field, and look, Malfoy has only just noticed, but it's too late! Gryffindor wins the match by the largest margin in a century and a half!"

* * *

Malfoy was furious.

Absolutely furious.

At least he could comfort himself with the prank he was about to pull on Weasley.

His lips curled somewhat in a horrid version of a smile which looked more like a grimace.

The thought lifted him from his gloomy mood for a couple of seconds.

It was _that _good.

* * *

"Emily, wait!"

"What do you want, Potter?"

"Look...I'm sorry"

Emily raised an eyebrow at him.

"That's all you can say for yourself?"

"Okay, fine. I was an idiot to have burst out at you like that. I promise I'll never do it again, and if I do, I'll give you permission to close my mouth hut with Quigley's Quick Cement."

"Now that's more like it.", she said with an approving smile.

"And I wanted to ask you something, Em."

She looked at him expectantly.

"Willyougotohogsmeadewithme?", he asked in a rush.

"Sure!",

Emily grabbed his hand and pulled him along the corridor in which they were standing in.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Don't want to miss the after- match party, do we?", she answered with a grin.

He let himself stare at the ebony haired girl in front of him as he was dragged up a staircase.

He sighed in relief.

All was well with his world, once again.

* * *

Ginny was in the Common Room.

The party had been raucous and it was one of the best that was ever held in her whole six years at the school.

Almost everyone had gone up to sleep, it was around two in the morning.

Emily had fallen asleep on the sofa, with her head resting on Harry, who was quietly snoring.

_They make a good couple, don't they?_, she asked herself in her head.

She felt like crying all of a sudden.

_Shhh, now , it's okay. She's your best friend, she deserves happiness. And he was never meant to be yours. _

_You'll find your guy one day. He'll come._

_And look on the bright side! You have a date tomorrow to Hogsmeade!_

She took a quiet sip of her butter beer and continued to stare into the fireplace until she fell asleep.

**XXXXXXX**

A/N: Thanks for reading! Just so you know, it'll probably be a few days until the next chapter comes up :)

Please leave a review! And thank to those who have! :)


	6. Chapter 6 : The Prank (Part 1)

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

A few days ago, there was a comment saying that I hadn't described Emily very well. Thank you to the person who wrote that review, because I hadn't even realised that I hadn't described Emily, yet.

However it's a bit too late to incorporate the description into the story because and I can't seem to fit it anywhere so I'll just give you a brief summary of her here.

Name: Emily Marie Pratcher

Number of siblings: None

Parents: John and Susanne Pratcher (both were in Ravenclaw)

Height: Around 5'6

Hair: Black (medium/long length)

Eyes: Brown

Face: Oval shaped with thin eyebrows. She has a few freckles on her nose.

*Half-Blood (Her parents are both half-bloods)

Her father works as in the Magical Law Enforcement Bureau, while her mother works in the Department of Magical Foreign Affairs.

*An intelligent student; the best in her class althought not quite at the same level as Hermione

* Is a prefect

* Played for the Geyffindor team as Beater in her fourth year due to lack of volunteers; was a decent Beater and probably the first female one in years

And that's about it. The other characters are more or less true to the original characters with a few changes and tweaks here and there.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Draco was abnormally giddy today, considering their horrific defeat just the day before.

_This can't bode well for those two girls, _Blaise thought.

_I just hope Pratcher takes my warning and keeps out of way. On the bright side, it'll be fun to see what he does to the Weaslette, _Blaise thought to himself as they both got ready to go on the first Hogsmeade visit of the year.

* * *

The girls were walking down to the school gates. They had just left the Great Hall and were on their way outside.

Emily stopped Ginny for a second.

"What happened?", asked Ginny looking at her best friend's face.

"I forgot to tell you before, but , Zabini gave me a warning, the day before yesterday, that Malfoy's planning to get his revenge."

"Malfoy? What could he possibly do?", scoffed Ginny and then continued, " His idea of a good prank is probably exploding a dung bomb at someone's a feet. The boy is only talk, no action, Em. We've got nothing to worry about.", reassured Ginny.

"I don't know, Ginny, Zabini said like Malfoy actually meant it."

"When did you get so chummy with Zabini, anyway?"

"Uh, we...erm, bumped into each other that evening when you had to go for quidditch practice."

"But why did he want to warn you? We're not exactly the best of friends with him , now are we?"

"He said he was just trying to be nice."

Ginny doubled over with laughter.

"How could you be so naïve, Emily? He's obviously trying to just scare us! Do you really think that Malfoy's best friend would want to warn us about a prank?"

"I don't know, Gin, he did seem sincere about it...", replied Emily, unsure.

"You see, Emily, the problem with you is that you're too trusting. You've gotta open up your mind, love. Everyone in the world isn't as nice as you are.", Ginny said with a grin.

Emily was a bit put out at being reprimanded.

"Fine.", she huffed. "But I'm still going to be on my guard. And if something happens to you, remember this, I told you so!", and with that she took out her wand.

Ginny just laughed.

They were about to reach the school entrance now and were about to step on dirt path to lead them towards the gate.

Emily saw it before Ginny did.

"Watch ou-!"

But it was too late.

The bucket of water fell on top of Ginny's head, leaving her soaked. It had fallen from above the entrance archway.

Emily waited for Ginny's reaction. To her surprise, she had a grin on her face.

"See? A child could prank better than Malfoy! It turned out to just be a bucket of water.", Ginny told Emily.

Ginny waved her wand once, muttered a spell, and she was dry once again.

" All good, again. Now would you stop looking so worried and put your wand away? The danger has passed.", Ginny dramatically said to her best friend.

Emily still was a bit uneasy but put her wand away, nonetheless.

They were at the school gates, now.

The air was slightly chilly, and first signs of winter were being seen, as it was October.

"Where are they?", asked Ginny, referring to their respective dates, Micheal Corner and Harry.

"I don't know, but Harry told me that he had to visit the Owlery, so it would take him a few minutes", replied Emily.

They saw Malfoy and Zabini standing not too far away, along with their cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

* * *

"So, Malfoy...now will you tell me what the plan is for the Weaslette?", asked Blaise curiously.

Malfoy let out an evil laugh and said, "No, Blaise. Let it be a surprise. Look, they've arrived, the Weasel and her sidekick."

"I think they're waiting for their dates, Malfoy."

It had been all over the Hogwarts gossip grapevine that the fiery red-head was going out with Corner to Hogsmeade. Blaise had tried pretty hard to find out if Emily was going out with anyone, but to no avail. People simply weren't that interested in the usually quiet Pratcher.

"The more, the merrier.", and with that, Malfoy started cackling.

Blaise had by now been wondering if Malfoy had been hit by a stray Bludger the day before. He was debating whether to drag him to Madam Pomfrey or not when Harry Potter arrived.

* * *

"Oh look, Em, Harry's here."

Harry had indeed arrived followed by Ron, Hermione, and their usual bickering.

This time they were arguing about the weather.

"C'mon Ron, everyone knows that the sky is grey because of the clouds!"

"No, it isn't! That's the actual colour of the sky when its about to snow!"

"That's because snow comes from clouds Ron! So what you're seeing right now is clouds! The whole sky is full of clouds right now!"

"No 'Mione, just accept that you're wrong for the first time in your life.", he stated with a maddening calmness.

"But I'm not! What makes you so sure _you're _right, anyway!.

"I know I'm right, because."

"_Why?", _she asked incredulously.

"Because.", he answered with the same calmness.

"Arrrgh!", and with that Hermione stomped away.

Ron looked triumphant for a second and then his expression turned to one of horror.

" 'Mione, wait!", and with that he ran after her.

Ginny, Emily, Harry, along with whoever was there with them had been watching that whole exchange and it took them a few seconds before they realised it was done.

"Hey Harry!"

"Hi, Harry!"

"Hey, girls!"

"They're at it again?", asked Ginny with a sympathetic expression.

Harry just nodded, although he had a painful expression on his face.

"K, ready, Em?"

"Yeah sure, were just waiting for Corner to show up."

"No, it's fine, you two go on, he shouldn't be long", and with that Ginny ushered them out.

Emily had asked her before if she felt anything for Harry and if she could go out with him to Hogsmeade. Emily didn't want to hurt her friend's feeling but felt it was time for Ginny to move on.

Ginny said it was okay, and had given her blessing for her bestie to go out with her ex. She didn't want to spoil Emily's happiness for anything in the world.

_What's taking Micheal so long?, _thought Ginny worriedly.

* * *

Draco and Blaise watched the argument between Ron and Hermione with amusement. It was always fun to see Gryffindorks bicker amongst themselves.

Oh, so Potter is taking out Pratcher, huh? The scar-head was one lucky fellow, thought Blaise bitterly.

"Damn!" cursed Malfoy all of a sudden.

"What happened?", asked Blaise.

"That girl, Proffer, is going out with Potter."

"So?", Blaise asked, not appreciating being reminded of that fact again. "It's Pratcher, by the way. But why is the fact that she's goin gout with a guy so important?"

"Meaning they're going to be heading in different directions, the Weaslel and that other girl. Which also means we can only do the prank on one of them now. Well, it's going to have to be the carrot head. We'll leave the other girl alone for now."

Blaise let out a sigh ofrelief.

He had a nagging feeling, that whatever Malfoy had in mind, was going to be _very _embarrassing, at the least.

* * *

"So, where do you want to go?", Harry asked Emily.

"Oh, I'd love to go this place that everyone's talking about. Apparently it's amazing!", gushed Emily.

"Okay, so what's the name?"

"I think it's called Madam Puddifoot's.", replied Emily casually, keeping an eye in Harry's expression.

Harry's face paled until his face looked death-white.

"Uh...er...erm...um...Em, are you _sure _you want to go there?"

Emily couldn't keep it in any longer. She burst out laughing.

"You should've seen your face!", she gasped out between breaths.

"Oh, so you _don't _want to go there", asked Harry hopefully.

_"Of course not, _what type of an idiot do you think I am?", Emily asked.

"Good, cause I seriously got worried back there..."

"Yea, I saw!", and with that Emily promptly broke out into giggles again.

Harry punched her lightly in the arm.

"Okay, enough funny business, miss. Tell me where you really want to go now.", he said with a grin.

"Let's go to Honeydukes, I'm running low on Sugar Quills!". Emily grabbed Harry's and started walking.

_You are my sugar, sugar. _He then mentally cringed. Gosh, he could be so corny sometimes.

* * *

Meanwhile, Micheal had finally shown up.

"What took you so long?", asked Ginny slightly miffed.

"Oh I had to pick out my clothes. I first thought about wearing cotton, but then I realised I would catch a cold if it started to snow, so then-"

"Okay, okay, I get the point. Now where do you want to go?"

"Don't worry, I've planned the most romantic lunch possible for both of us.", he said with a trying to be sly grin.

Ginny got premonitory chills.

"Where are we going?", she asked Micheal warily.

"This amazing place called Madam Puddifoot's! Only the best for you and I, Ginny dear!"

Ginny wanted to slap her face.

_This is going to be fun, _she thought sarcastically.

* * *

"Finally! Corner's arrived. Quickly, we've got to follow them!", announced Draco

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx

A/N: The prank is going to be revealed in the next chapter!

THANK YOU FOR READING!

Leave a review please! :)


	7. Chapter 7 : The Prank (Part 2)

_Previously on "The Blond and The Ginger"..._

_"Finally! Corner's arrived. Quickly we've got to follow them!" Announced Draco._

**Chapter 7.**

"Wait! Don't you think we should leave Crabbe and Goyle behind? They'd just be a nuisance.", warned Blaise.

Draco looked thoughtful for a second and then nodded. "Okay", he agreed.

"But how?", he asked.

"Leave it to me.", Blaise assured him with a grin.

Blaise turned to Crabbe and Goyle who were discussing whether Coackroach Clusters had real Cockroaches in them or not.

Suddenly, Bliase pointed to the skies and shouted,

"LOOK BOYS! THERE'S A DEAD BIRD FLYING IN THE SKY!"

Both his dim-witted companions promptly looked up curiously but couldn't find any bird flying.

When they looked back down, Malfoy and Zabini were nowhere to be found.

They were confused. Hadn't they just been with them? They both looked at each other and then shrugged, and started to march over to Honeydukes.

* * *

"I still can't believe that they fell for it, Blaise."

Blaise just laughed.

"Where do you think they went?", asked Blaise.

"Well...I've done a bit of research and apparently Corner likes to take his dates out to Madam Puddifoot's."

"By research do you mean cozying up to Miranda Hawkins, his last girlfriend?", asked Blaise incredulously.

"Sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.", Draco replied solemnly.

Both of them had reached Madam Puddifoot's and Draco peered through the glass to see if his victims were there. He was pleased to see that they were.

"Okay, so theyre in there. Now let the fun begin."

"What exactly are we doing, Draco?"

" I'll let you stay next to me to enjoy the fun, if you promise you stop asking me that question. I've already told you, it's a surprise!", Draco replied slightly annoyed.

"Fine, Important To Be Disturbed.", Blaise grumbled.

"Now we're about to go inside for the next stage of the plan. I'm going to cast a Disillusionment Charm so you have to be extremely, extremely quiet. Okay?"

Blaise nodded, unsure of what crazy idea that Draco had planned.

Draco took out his wand, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and the rapped both his and Blaise's head.

He felt as if an egg had been cracked over his head. Nasty, slimy, feeling it was and was one of the reasons he was never too fond of a Disillusionment charm.

He looked over to Blaise but couldn't find him.

"Blaise, you there?", he whispered.

"Yes, I'm still here. You disillusioned me, you didn't vanish me."

Soon an elderly couple opened the door and made to go inside the tea shop. The two Slytherin intruders entered with them.

Awkward as it was, the two Slytheirns had to hold hands because neither could see each other.

Draco tip-toed over to a corner nearby where Ginny was sitting and dragged Blaise along with him.

"Now let the fun begin!", Draco whispered to Blaise. He also had a wicked smile on his smile, but alas, none could see it.

"Draco, will you let go of my hand now?"

* * *

Ginny was a having a blast.

That was the only word to describe it.

Micheal Corner, in an attempt to appear interested and caring, had been asking her questions about her life, her hobbies, her interests, etc, etc, etc.

Which would have been okay, heck, it might have even been sweet if it wasnt for the fact that what had been a few questions turned into a game of twenty questions which was now rapidly turning into a gruelling third degree interrogation.

_Iit had started like this_...

"What your favourite colour?"

"Red."

"Do you have a dog?"

"No."

_And then became like this..._

"How many cousins do you have?"

"Too many."

"What's your favourite type of ice-cream excluding all flavours with chocolate, strawberry, honey, nuts, caramel, butterscotch, and fudge?"

"Uh...vanilla?"

_It's current form then became like this..._

"What's your height?"

"5'5."

"What's your weight?"

"Excuse me?"

"Do you have a dog?"

"You already asked that question, Corner."

"I repeat, do you have a dog?"

"But -"

"Don't try to back talk me, miss, I repeat, _do you have a dog?"_

"Yes I do. Its name is Micheal."

oooooooooooooooo

Draco and Blaise were watching this from the corner where they were situated. Blaise had his fist in his mouth to stop from laughing and even Draco had found the whole situation amusing.

_Now it should be time, _he thought to himself.

He waved his wand once and muttered an incantation softly.

* * *

_This can't get any worse, can it?, _Ginny thought miserably.

She said it too soon.

Suddenly, it was as if someone had taken over her body. She was no longer in control of her actions. She felt like an outsider in her own mind.

Her hands started moving of their own accord. They picked up the tea-cup in fron of her and brought it to her mouth. Her mouth started to take a sip.

Her hands fell back down, and she swallowed.

Her throat now cleared, she opened her mouth and found that words were coming out on their own.

" Oh Micheal, I think you're the handsomest, darlingest, sweetest, most loving and caring guy a girl could wish for." She sighed like a love-sick puppy.

In the corner, Draco was mouthing Ginny's lines word for word.

Micheal who had been taking a break from his interrogation, choked on the water he was drinking.

_What am I saying!?, _thought Ginny internally.

Micheal blushed and said, " Thanks Ginny, funnily enough, Mum says the same."

"And since you're such a sweetie, I even wrote a song for you!", Ginny said in the same lovey-dovish voice."

"Uh...Ginny, you didn't have to...", replied Micheal embarrassedly.

"I did it cause you're my sweetheart!". Ginny's facial muscles were stretching into a grin against her will. Her eyelashes started batting as well.

Draco was imitating her actions in the corner. He had found a spell that when cast on another person, would make them like a puppet, doing whatever their controller wanted them to do.

Blaise was a bit confused by how Ginny was acting. It was a vast change from her attitude towards Micheal just a few minutes ago. Then, a lightbulb in his head clicked.

.Malfoy, is that you who's making her do that?"

"The one and only, Blaise.". You could hear the excitement in his voice. Blaise had to admit, the whole situation was pretty funny.

Someone else in the room, however didn't think so...

_What's happening to me?!, _thought Ginny worriedly.

The same strange force was trying to make her rise from her seat. She tried to resist it.

It resulted in her getting up from her seat, and falling back into it a couple of times, which was enough for Corner to ask her if everything was okay.

"It's completely alright, pumpkin, in fact I'm about to show you the song.", she told Micheal with what was supposed to be a seductive smile.

_This cannot be happening to me, _thought Ginny in despair.

She then turned to face the crowd in the shop. The place was filled with couples, some of who, seemed to be enjoying themselves, and others who looked like they were going to run for their lives, the first chance they got.

"Listen up, everybody, I've a got a special something to sing for my lovely darling, Mike", she announced to her audience.

Micheal Corner paled once he realised what she was trying to do. He tried to pull her back into the seat.

"C'mon Ginny, there's no need to bother everyone else with it..."

But it was too late. She had already started.

Draco was reading off a piece of paper in his hand. It was a poem that he had composed just the night before, but he was proud of his handiwork.

* * *

_Meanwhile, elsewhere..._

"Em...you've been looking slightly worried since the time we set foot from Hogwarts. What' is that you're thinking about?"

Emily bit her lip and hesitated.

"Well...you remember the prank that Ginny pulled on Draco? Someone told me that Draco's going to try to get his revenge and I'm worried about Ginny."

Harry looked at Emily and then asked, " And you want to check up on her?.

Emily nodded.

"Ginny can take care of herself, you know that right?"

"Yea I do and I've also warned her about Malfoy but I don't think she's taking it very seriously. She's got her guard down and would make a perfect vicitim for Malfoy."

"Okay, then, do you know where Corner would most likely have taken Ginny out?"

"I think I do...I just hope, for Ginny's sake, that I'm wrong..."

* * *

Ginny had started to sing.

_"Oh, I like this boy named Corner_

_lovely as Lockhart, is he_

_A handsome, charming bachelor_

_As all here can see._

_His sparkling eyes are blue_

_His shiny hair is brown_

_His leather shoes are new,_

_His gorgeous face is round_

_A mighty fine one indeed_

_That strong body of his_

_It's of a complete new breed_

_And definitely hard to miss_

_Oh, I waited many a day_

_For him to ask me out here_

_I wanted for him to say_

_Ginny, join me for a butter beeeeer_

_I've always looked forward to that day_

_And a week ago he did_

_Finally, to myself, I might say_

_I've been waiting since I was a kid!_

_I'm in love with this handsome fellow_

_He's a mighty good-looking guy_

_Let the rain fall, and the wind blow_

_I'll be with him till I die_

_Now there's not much left to do_

_We just have to marry_

_I'd like to have twenty kids pretty soon_

_So lets not tarry!"_

It was over.

The whole place was sniggering.

Micheal was in shock and fled the tea-shop.

_What have I done?!, _Ginny screamed at herself internally.

Blaise and Draco had tears in their eyes from the laughing and quietly left the tea-shop.

Emily and Harry had arrived by now, and had heard the last few stanzas of the song. Emily rushed over to Ginny's side.

"Okay, show's over folks, mind your own business", Emily shouted at the remaining people who were still staring at the Weasley red- head.

She then turned to Ginny.

Ginny, how many fingers am I holding up?", asked Emily.

"Em, I lost control of my sense not my sight."

"Gin, what just happened?", she asked her in a cautious voice.

"Gee, Ginny, I never knew you had a thing for Corner...", commented Harry with a confused expression.

Ginny threw a dirty look at Harry and then turned to Emily to speak.

"I'm thankful, you two are here. I don't know what's been happening for last fifteen minutes. I haven't been in control of my actions or words. It's as if someone were controlling me from afar."

"You don't think...you've been put under the Imperius Curse?", Emily asked horrified.

"No, I'd don't think so...because firstly, I was aware if my actions, just not in control of them. Secondly, I doubt anyone who wanted to put under the Imperius would do it for any reason less than killing the muggle Queen, I mean, look, how many people would want to go to Azkaban for a silly prank."

"You do realise there must have been only one person who did this, right?"

"Malfoy.", said Ginny and Harry at the same time. Harry had lost that confused expression by now.

"Ooh, I'm going to kill that git when I see him. Sorry, Em, I should have listened to you when I had the chance..."

"It's okay. That's what friends are for.", Emily replied with a smile.

"The news is going to be all over the school tomorow!', Ginny groaned.

Emily awkwardly patted her back and tried to reassure her. "Hey, at least this isn't the most embarrassing thing you've been in...I mean, remember first year, and the bathroom incident?"

Ginny glared daggers at her.

"Well, there's only one thing to do now!", interjected Harry cheerfully.

"What?",questioned both girls in unison.

"Revenge, of course", and with that he started to laugh maniacally.

Emily put a hand against her mouth and whispered discreetly to Ginny, "He's had one too many Acid Pops at Honeydukes..."

Ginny smiled despite herself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Thank you to all my readers! I really appreciate your feedback and you guys are my encouragement! Thank you to all those who have given tips on how to make the story better, I appreciate that too :) The next post will most likely be put up after two days, if not earlier.**

**THANK YOU FOR READING AND PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW!**

**-TheHangingBracelet**


	8. Chapter 8: The Midnight Mission

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ginny, are you sure this is a good idea?", asked Emily worriedly.

"Of course it is! The end justifies the means! I have to get back at that ferret head for what he did to me. Oh, he's going to regret ever having thought of crossing me.", replied Ginny gleefully.

It was midnight and the two girls were tip-toeing throught the corridors of Hogwarts. They were headed in the direction of the Slytherin Common Room.

The girls stopped at the tapestry of Walburga the Wary, when they heard the sound of Filch and his cat nearby.

Filch passed by them, unaware, that two girls were out-of-bounds after curfew.

They were hiding under the Invisibilty Cloak. It was Harry's of course and they had borrowed it.

Without asking.

Ginny assured Emily that Ron nicked it all the time to have a trip down to the Kitchens and Harry never noticed. That appeased their barely developed teenage consciences.

The girls let out a collective sigh once Filch had passed and then continued on their way.

Ginny took out a piece of parchment. It was a copy of the Hogwarts castle blueprint which was given in the book, "Hogwarts, A History".

"Okay, so the map says that we have to turn left, go down two flights of stairs and then taken two rights, and then another flight of stairs and then we'll be at the snakes' common room.", Ginny pointed out to Emily.

"Okay, lets get a move on. All these portraits at night creep me out.", replied Emily.

The girls followed the directions and soon, they ended up in front of the Slytherin Dungeon Entrance. It was concealed in an alcove.

Both girls looked at each other wide-eyed. They didn't bother to find out the password first.

"How could we be so stupid?", Emily groaned while putting a hand against her forehead.

Ginny sat down on the floor cross-legged and thought for a few minutes first.

"Maybe we could guess the password?"

"Yeah, that's going to be really easy.", commented Emily sarcastically.

"Wait...lets try logical thinking. The seventh year prefects control the password to the common room because there isn't a Head Boy or a Head Girl from their house. So, who are the seventh year prefects for Slytherin?"

"It's Boke and Firt."

"Isn't Firt the one with the extreme Gryffindor hatred."

"That's the lass."

"Hmm...lets try this". Ginny cleared her throat and spoke to the door of the Slytheirn Common Room.

"Slytherins rule,

Gryffindors drool."

The door opened.

Emily's mouth hung open in surprise and then she started muttering under her breath with a frown on her face.

"And they say we're the ones not open for house unity!", she huffed and entered through the door.

Ginny followed her inside.

The Slytherin Common Room was big and had carvings on the walls on all sides. It was located in one of the numerous dungeons of Hogswarts. The girls concluded that they were under the Lake, as they could hear the swish of water through the panelled glass on one side of the Common Room.

There were numerous fireplaces situated in the Slytherin Dungeon which probably prevented competition for a single fireplace of the type which happened in the Gryffindor Common Room everyday.

There were two spiral staircases in the Room, just like in the girls' own, but these led further downstairs, not up.

"I think the right side staircase is the boys' dorm", said Emily.

"Okay. Remember, we have to be absolutely quiet.", Emily nodded.

"I'll lead the way. Wands up." Emily walked down the staircase with Ginny on her trail.

At the bottom of the staircase, there was a narrow corridor which stretched on for quite some distance. They followed the path.

There were signs on the dorms and silently they passed by the room's of the lower years until they reached a heavy, brass door, with a snake engraving on the front , with a sign on it which read, "Seventh Year Boys Dorm."

They oiled the handle with a spell before they opened it, in case it creaked and woke up the boys slumbering inside.

They opened up the door only partly and slipped thought the small crack.

Emily then proceeded to cast Sleeping Charms on all the boys in the room.

The room was circular in shape and very spacious. There were eight beds with curtains drawn around all of them. The curtains were emerald green.

When Emily opened up the curtains if Blaise's bed, she tried not to blush. The Sytherin boy was sleeping shirtless. She quickly cast the spell and closed the curtains quickly and then did the same to Draco, as well as the other Slytherin boys.

If Ginny noticed that Emily's cheeks were sligtly flushed, when she rejoined her in the centre of the room, she chose not to comment.

"Okay, so what's the game-plan?", she asked Ginny.

"We look for anything embarrassing of Draco's.", replied Ginny.

"Well, we should better hurry up. My sleeping charms only last about fifteen minutes, and once the charm has lost it's effect, they'll stir."

"Okay, so you see his trunk anywhere?"

The girls looked around until Emily spotted a heavy, brass trunk, at the edge of the room, with written in gold lettering. Upon closer inspection, the trunk was decorated with miniature dragons and snakes throughout. Detailed engravings like these cost fortunes these days.

Ginny opened the trunk and the two girls started rummaging through the contents, while kneeling on the floor.

They found old pairs of socks, a stinky pair of sneakers, a snitch which fluttered half-heartedly upon touch, a pair of Omniculars, a broom-servicing kit, a sweater which seemed to be hand-knitted, a box of sweets probably sent to him from home, and various other nondescript items until they found what they were looking for.

A photo album.

They sat back on the floor and started flipping the pages though.

They were many photos of him ranging from when he was a new-born to right before he joined Hogwarts. There was one in which he was zooming around in a toy-broom with his house-elf trying to tug on its tail to get him down.

Ginny smiled at this one, he seemed so happy.

There was another in which he was standing with a woman with dark hair. Her hair was medium length and left loose. She had the same grey eyes as him, as well and was whispering something to him in his ear as they both were looking at the camera. Draco was smiling in this picture as well. The girls concluded that this was his mother, the socialite Narcissa Malfoy, from the fact that both shared the same facial features.

There was a few pictures which had a young Malfoy with an equally young Blaise. In one of those pictures, Blaise was pulling on one of Draco's ears while the blond little boy seemed about to cry. Emily chuckled at this one.

There was one picture which was different from the others.

While the others were informal, casual, and probably taken by one of the members of the family or the household, this one as obviously a formal family potrait. Mrs. Malfoy was seated on a bench with a baby Draco on her lap. Her expression in this picture was a stark contrast from her last. She wasnt smiling in this one, and was simply looking into the camera with an expressionless look on her face. Even the baby Draco seemed subdued. There was a man behind Mrs. Malfoy. He had a aristocratic expression and shared the same pale-blond hair as his son. He had a hand on his wife's shoulder who was seated in front if him.

Lucius Malfoy. The death-eater who was convicted a month after the fall of Voldemort, along with twenty others. Draco had probably never met him again before he died in Azkaban a year later.

Ginny and Emily stopped at this photo for quite some time until Ginny of them remembered their original purpose for coming here.

The spell was about to wear off any minute. Ginny hurriedly flipped though the rest iPod the photos, trying to look for a suitable one.

"Aha!", she suddenly cried. "Em, look at this one!", she told her best friend.

"Perfect!", Emily replied and tried to stop herself from giggling.

"Okay, lets go! Mission accomplished.", she said with a satisfied grin.

"Who's that talking?", asked a groggy Malfoy, evidently still half-asleep.

The girls got up and fled with haste out the door.

Only when they finally reached Gryffindor Tower, did they relax.

Ginny took out the photo, once more, which had been crumpled in her hand in the mad dash towards their Common Room and grinned.

_Emily is right, this is absolutely perfect._

They girls hopped up the staircase to their dorm and fell asleep as soon as their heads touched their pillows.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**A/N: Hello folks! Thanks to those who left reviews! You guys mean the world to me!**

**There's a pretty huge twist coming in the story pretty soon, and I thought I'd like to give you a guys a warning. :) It will be revealed in either the next chapter or the one after that, so keep reading! Once the twist has been revealed, the summary if this story will also be changed slightly to reflect on the change.**

**At first, when I started to write this story, I didn't know where it was going to take me, but now I have a definite storyline that I'm going to follow, so that's good. :) no longer running around in the dark. :)**

**In other news, I've recently read the first two instalments of the Millenium trilogy by Steig Larsson. They are very nice books but I was just wondering if anyone else was bewildered by the amount of times coffee is mentioned in that story? I mean, like, seriously, there are about twenty references to coffee in each chapter. The characters seem to be _constantly_ drinking coffee!**

**Anyway, I'm gonna cut my rambling short now. :)**

**THANK YOU FOR READING!**

**- TheHangingBracelet**


	9. Chapter 9: The Photo

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

**XXXXXXXXXXXX**

Draco woke up early. Later, he would regret doing this, but fit the moment he was glad he would be one of the first ones to the breakfast. After all, if they were going to serve cinnamon buns today, it would be best to hurry up and have some before Crabbe and Goyle got a whiff of them and ate them all up.

He walked over to Blaise's bed to shake him awake kindly.

"Blaise! Get your arse out of bed right now!"

"Sod off Malfoy, it's only 6."

"But I have this tingly feeling in my left foot's big toe that the elves are going to serve cinnamon buns today!", sang Malfoy.

"On second thought, I'll be ready in five minutes."Having said that Blaise jumped out of his bed with surprising energy for a teenager woken up early on a schoolday.

Satisfied with the thought that they might be able to get an advantage against Crabbe and Goyle in the pursuit of delicious food, they quickly brushed his teeth, showered, got dressed, and walked out the Common Room door.

As they entered the Great Hall, there was a sudden outburst of talking amongst the other students in hushed tones.

The boys, unbothered by this, sat down to breakfast. Malfoy's tingly feeling was right, they did have cinnamon buns today.

All was peaceful. Cinnamon buns were aplenty. Life was good to those two Sytherins.

That is until someone called out Malfoy's name.

"Oi, Malfoy! Mind giving me an autograph on this picture?"

It was Ron Weasley. He had a grin on that stretched a mile wide. All the other students started laughing.

_He looks like his family won the lottery. Why is everyone laughing? ,_wondered Malfoy to himself.

"Un, Draco, what happened?", asked Blaise in a whisper.

"How am I bloody supposed to know?"

"He's holding a picture in his hand.", Blaise commented.

He did a quick survey of the Common Room and then said, "Actually, almost everyone seems to be holding a picture in their hand..."

Draco saw a fourth year Slytherin girl sitting a few places to the left of them. He stretched out his hand and grabbed one of the photos in her hand. She turned angrily readily to confront the person who had so boldly snatched the picture out if her hand but when she saw Draco, she immediately burst into a fit of giggles.

He took a glance at it and immediately blanched.

"Er, Draco? You all right...?", asked Balise immediately because, frankly, Draco looked like he had seen a ghost.

Blaise gingerly stuck his hand out and pried the photo away from Malfoy.

He took a look at the photo.

He promptly put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing, but the effort proved futile.

"When was this taken?", asked Blaise in between giggles.

"It's none of your business", snarled Draco.

The photo had an image of A young Draco, presumably only three or four years old at that time. He had on a pink dress with ruffles everywhere and had a wig with curly brown hair flowing down his back. He was wearing, most likely his mother's, high heels and had a toy purse in one hand. If there had been a muggleborn sitting at the Slytherin table, they would have easily been able to identify the whole costume as Sleeping Beauty's. Draco was giggling and waving to the camera.

"How in the world did you get into a pink dress? For as long as I've known you, you've _hated_ pink.", asked Blaise curiously.

"Some friend of my mother's got me a present for Halloween at one of their get-togethers. Apparently the woman thought I was a girl, as she had never heard the name Draco before, and as she was a muggle-born she got me a pink dress out of some variety shop near where she lived. I saw it, I liked it, I wore it. End of story. I was only four years old.", Draco told Blaise through gritted teeth.

"But how is this photo circulating around the whole student body?", asked Blaise with a smile on his face as he looked at the picture once more.

"I don't know. The original is in my trunk. Someone must have stolen it and made copies for everyone...", concluded Draco.

"But who?"

"Isn't it obvious?". Draco pointed over to the Gryffindor table where Ginny was handing the photos out with pleasure to anyone who walked through the door.

"Hey Malfoy! I think you're new name should be Princess Goldilocks!", shouted out a sixth year Hufflepuff to the approval of his housemates as was reflected by their loud round of laughter following that comment.

_Great, now the Pygmy Puffs are also mocking me..._, thought Draco to himself.

He stood up from the table and announced to Blaise that he wasn't hungry.

As he walked by the Great Hall entrance, he heard Ginny shout out, "Hey Malfoy! Guess what? I made you a celebrity!"

He ignored her and continued walking.

That Pratcher girl passed by him.

He stuck out his hand and stopped her.

"Your ginger friend ,over there ,better watch what she does in the future if she still wants to live with all limbs intact", he said while jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Great Hall entrance.

Pratcher just narrowed her eyes at him and pushed past him towards Ginny.

Draco resumed his pace.

_How could she have gotten that picture?..._

He passed by the tapestry of Barnacle Bob.

_There's only one explanation, of course..._

He was at the top of the staircase leading towards the dungeons.

_She must have broken into the Common Room..._

He had climbed down one flight of stairs by now.

_I'm going to have a talk with Firt about changing the password..._

He was almost at the staircase by now.

_But why didn't any of us hear her come in..._

He was at the bottom of the landing.

_She must have cast a Sleeping Charm on all of us..._

He walked toward the Common Room entrance.

_But she can't have done that, Sleeping charms are seventh-year level charms. Heck, I only mastered mine last week..._

He gave the password.

_She must have gotten someone else to do it..._

He entered the Common Room and proceeded downstairs to the boy's dorm.

_Ah, that girl Pratcher must have been her accomplice. Wasn't she the one who won the Charms Club trophy last year?_

He entered the seventh-years dorm and sat down on his four-poster bed.

_I have to admit, they've been pretty clever. By pranking me so quickly, they've focused the school's attention completely on me. No one seems to even know what happened in Hogsmeade yesterday!_

He stared at the ceiling above his comfy bed.

_Now I have to think of something to make them regret this..._

_oooooooooooooooo_

Blaise was starting to get worried. Draco hadnt shown up to any of his classes today. Blaise must have had to lie to about ten professors today saying that Malfoy had taken sick. He hadnt even appeared at lunch. Blaise had thought about going down to check the dorm for Malfoy, but didn't have time as he had to complete a last-minute essay for Flitwick for seventh-period Charms.

It was dinner time now and Blaise had just entered the Hall. He could stil see a few people brandishing photos of baby Malfoy and showing them to the few people remaining in the school who hadnt obtained a copy for themselves.

Draco hadnt shown up for dinner yet. Blaise was starving so he decided to eat a quick dinner and then hunt for Malfoy and drag him to the Great Hall.

However, the plan proved uneccessary. Halfway through his shepherd's pie, Zabini looked up to find a cheerful looking Malfoy coming towards him.

"Hey Blaise.", Draco greeted.

Blaise gave him a nasty look and then spoke, " I haven't seen hide nor tail of you and then you jauntily show up and all you can say is hey?!". Blaise looked at him incredulously.

"So what were you up to the whole day?", he questioned.

"That can wait. I'm starving.", and with that he reached over to help himself to some food.

After he had his fill, he pushed his plate back and looked at Blaise.

"I've been thinking."

"About what?"

"Revenge, of course."

"Don't you think it would be a bad idea to prolong this...prank war? It's been going on long enough, don't you think?"

"Malfoy's never shy away from challenge.", Draco said with a firm voice.

"If you prank Weasley again, she's going do something even worse than this time."

"I don't care. It's a matter of principle. Of life and death. Of..."

"I get it but I still say its your funeral." Blaise turned his attention back to his dessert.

As they were finishing their dinner along with all the other students in the Great Hall, something unexpected happened.

Dumbledore stood up.

This could only mean he had something to say.

All non-important messages were conveyed to the student body by notices put on the notice board in their respective House Dorms so when Dumbledore was seen standing up at any time other than the school feast, it could only mean that he had something extremely important to say.

His face looked cheerful. But then again, something that makes Dumbledore cheerful might not necessarily make them cheerful.

"Students, may I have your attention?", he asked.

All the people in the Great Hall turned to look at Dumbledore.

"I have an important announcement to make, so I kindly request your full attention, please."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**It's a cliffie! Mwuhahahahaha! (Evil Author Laugh!)**

**A/N: Yeah, I know that this chapter is just mainly a filler but I wanted to get on to the next part quickly. The prank war should effectively be ending now. Something better is about to start. ;)**

**As always, please read and review!**

**THANK YOU FOR READING :)**


	10. Chapter 10 : The Announcement

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

**XXXXXXXXXXXX**

_**Previously on "The Blond and The Ginger"...**_

_All the people in the Great Hall turned to look at Dumbledore._

_"I have an important announcement to make, so I kindly request your full attention, please."_

**Chapter 10.**

"It has recently come to my attention that rivalries among the four noble houses have reached the highest level since this school was founded."

He paused to let it sink in.

"The Sorting Hat has warned me that if immediate action isn't taken, it will only get worse and worse. As you are young adults who will graduate to become the British wizarding society, it would be harmful for you to be harbouring such hostile feeling amongst yourselves from such an early age."

He paused again. Every breath was being held in the hall. No one knew where this speech was going.

"So the Hogwarts faculty has recently had a meeting to come up with a viable solution to the problem that we face."

McGonagall face was grimly set and Snape's wasn't much different. Although Dumbledore seemed certainly hopeful about the new proposal that he was about to make, it was clear that these two heads of Houses didn't think so. Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout weren't smiling either.

"Many suggestions were made but none would work until, if I may so, I had a rather brilliant idea that would unite the Hogwarts Houses and yet maintain that sense of friendly competition that we pride ourselves in.". Dumbledore was positively beaming by now.

He cleared his throat for effect. This was the part of the job description which he liked the most. The grandstanding.

"This year the House Cup competition will run differently."

Several students made alarmed noises, and suddenly the black expressions on the teacher's faces seemed foreboding.

Whispers floated around the Great Hall as students tried to guess what the headmaster was about to say.

"This year...two pairs of houses will merge to compete for the House Cup."

Commotion broke out amongst the students but the teachers made no attempt to subdue it. They had been expecting it all along.

Dumbledore simple waited patiently until everyone got over their first shock.

Many students wore frowns on their faces, and angry looks were being cast on members of other Houses as if to imply that it was their fault that the situation had to be brought to this.

People were whispering, murmuring, and a bold second year from the Hufflepuff Table even stood up to shout, "This isn't fair!". Internally, many other students agreed with him.

Dumbledore simply observed the child for a second and proceeded to ignore him.

"The old man's gone barmy!", said Draco to Blaise.

Blaise remained silent. He respected the headmaster to a certain extent but he could not deny that there might be truth in what Draco was saying if it turned out that the headmaster wasnt kidding when he announced that he was going to change the House Cup rules this year.

Across the Great Hall, Ginny was furious.

"They can't do this!", she exclaimed out loud.

Several of her housemates turned towards her. She was sitting in her usual spot, beside Emily and nearby Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Ron's ears were as red as his hair but surprisingly he stayed silent.

Harry had a worried look on his face. He didn't like the new developments.

Emily was staring at Dumbledore, not able to believe her ears.

Hermione was the only one who was still calm.

"They're infringing on our fundamental right to be nasty towards people we don't like!", Draco told Blaise back at the Slytherin table.

Crabbe and Goyle had still not understood what the headmaster had said and were dumbly looking around and nodding whenever someone made a fervent statement such as the one Draco did.

"While that's fun to do, Draco, I don't think that's an actual right", Blaise kindly told Malfoy.

At the Gryffindor table, Ginny looked like she was going to go on a famous Weasley tirade, one that was directed at the headmaster.

Emily recognised the early signs and tried to defuse the tense situation but had no idea how. That was when Hermione spoke up.

She quietly wiped her napkin on her mouth first, before she started to explain to Ginny.

"Actually, the headmaster has a very good reason to do what's he's doing. He's right, you know, house rivalries have never before reached the peak they are at now, not even during the Wizarding War, eighteen years ago."

She took a sip from her goblet full of pumpkin juice.

"Right now, Gryffindors and Slytherins are always at each others' throats. It used to be because of the magical blood nonsense, previously, but now that the new decree has been passed, lessening the influence of pure bloods in society, it has just turned into mindless hate between the two house.

And the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs have never been too friendly towards each other, either. The puffs value hard work and believe that no amount of intelligence will help if you're lazy, while the Ravenclaws that exertion without thinking first is useless. There's a fundamental difference in their ideologies.", Hermione stated.

"But why make a change now? These house rivalries have always been present. They might be at their highest levels right now, but they will subside overtime, so why not just wait it out instead of breaking tradition?", asked Emily. She never liked change.

As a child, she had to frequently move between countries as her mother worked in many magical embassies in various countries around the world. Just when she got settled into a new home as a child, she would end up having to move again to some far corner of the globe. Thus, as a small child itself, Emily had developed a high aversion to change.

Hermione quickly explained. "It might seem that tension between houses has always been prevalent, but actually that has not been the case. In fact there were times in which Gryffindors and Slytherins shared an unlikely alliance as did the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs."

The others looked at her in wonder.

"In fact, according to Hogwarts, A History, the history of Hogswarts has always been marked by periods of alliances between certain houses to balance the competitiveness felt towards other. It is the fact that, in this age, each House is on its own with absolutely no bonding between them, that makes it imperative for some action to be taken. It's the first time, it's ever been as bad as this."

As Hermione finished talking, the noise level in the dining hall had gone down so Professor Dmbledore motioned for everyone to turn their attention back to him.

"If I may continue, I will explain the circumstances and new rules regarding the House Cup Tournament this year, so I advise you to listen with great attention, lest you be in confusion later."

Everyone's eyes were on him now. While many were hostile to the idea of changing the centuries old tradition of the House Cup, others were curious to see how it would pan out.

"As I said, two pairs of houses will merge to compete for the House Cup. The Sorting Hat has advised us in which houses should merge to sort out their differences and strengthen the unity of the school in accordance with the original founder's advice and , so, we have decided that Slytherin and Gryffindor will merge, as will Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

The few students who had hoped that through the merger they would recruit allies to bring down their enemies now despaired as they realised that they were _paired_ with their enemies instead.

The Gryffindor threw the Slytherins murderous glares which they gladly returned and the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were openly sneering at each other.

Dumbledore, however, continued, seemingly oblivious.

" The house point system will work the same, with students who perform good deeds or show exemplary behaviour earning points for their respective merger, and those who do misdeeds or show bad judgment will lose points. The seating arrangements in the Great Hall will be reorganised from tomorrow. The Quidditch Cup will be organised slightly different this year."

Several people took sharp intakes of breath. For many, this was the topic closest to their hearts.

"There will only be three matches this year."

There was an uproar. Only three matches? Quidditch matches provided most students with their inky form of entertainment throughout the year, so undertstandabky, they were upset. Reducing the usual eleven or twelve matches a year to just three was a serious thing indeed.

"The winner of two matches will win the Quidditch Cup. Some of you may ask why so few matches. It is because there are several new events planned this year, in order to achieve our goal of unity, and, I'm afraid, it simply isn't possible to fit everything into the school calendar, unless you are willing to stay at Hogwarts year-round."

Everyone shut up at that.

"Like I said, there are new events planned and many of them are exciting, so I doubt any if you will miss the extra Quidditch matches too much."

The faces in the Hall looked doubtful.

"There will be joint house meetings after classes tomorow, at which the Heads of both Houses involved in their respective merger will be present. They will explain the finer details, and answer any queries you have.

"With that, I dismiss you. Good night to all!", Dumbledore cheerfully stepped off the podium and started to make his way to his office.

One by one, the students began to exit out the Hall. No one knew what to think about the new "merger" system, but all were assured that the first few days were _not _going to be pleasant.

"Still can't believe they want us to get chummy with those idiots", Ron muttered under his breath to his sister and her best friend while pointing at Crabbe and Goyle who were walking behind Zabini and Malfoy.

"Neither can I.", agreed Ginny.

She looked over at where Ron was pointing and was surprised to find that Malfoy was looking at her. And not with a very friendly expression either. She narrowed her eyes at him and kept walking ahead.

Emily looked over too, and blushed when she looked at Zabini, remembering the events of last night. She felt irritated with herself and looked back in front.

Harry was preoccupied with thoughts on how to stop the Slytherins from trying any nasty business the next day, in case they thought it would be a good idea.

Hermione, was as usual, looking wistful , probably because she couldn't visit the library one last time before going to bed.

Draco's eyes met Weasley's. He'd almost forgotten she was a Gryffindor.

_Great!, _he thought sarcastically. _We're going to have to be best buddies with the carrot-head and her friend from now on and to mention the Pottyhead and his sidekicks. _He grimaced.

A different train of thoughts ran through Blaise's head.

_Who knows? I might have a chance now with Pratcher, now that us Slytherins will have to interact more with those Griffindorks. Shame, really, she got sorted there..._he thought twice in the span of a day.

The Hogswarts shuffled off to their respective dorms, not knowing nor eagerly anticipating the events of the next day.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N: And here's the big surprise! The summary of the story has been changed because I don't think it will do justice to where the story's heading right now. I'm even thinking if changing the humour tag to drama...tell me what you guys think, and then I'll see.**

**POLL:**

_**SHOULD I CHANGE THE STORY HUMOUR TAG TO DRAMA?**_

_**Please vote! :)**_

_**Kindly leave a review if you've read this, and thank you so much to all those who have! I love you guys! :)**_

_**Im sorry if the next chapter comes up a day later than the usual two day break. I have a science fair this Saturday, so I'm finding myself quite busy. Don't worry, though I have outlines until Chapter 18 written out. :)**_

**THANKY YOU FOR READING :)**


	11. Chapter 11: The Joint Meeting

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The day passed by quickly for most as they were excited for the joint House meetings in the evening.

After all, with some luck, they might be able to see the Heads of Houses kill each other over a small disagreement.

Soon enough, everyone was shuffling off from dinner to the venues of the House meetings. To the disgruntlement of the Slytherins, it had been put up on the house notice board in their Common Room that their joint meeting would take place in the Gryffindor Common Room.

By the time Blaise and Draco reached the Gryffindor portrait hole, almost everyone had already assembled there. The Fat Lady was under instructions to open the portrait hole to any student who wore either a scarlet or green tie, much to her displeasure.

Blaise and Draco quickly stepped through, followed by their henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle. Professor McGonagall and Snape were already present and both gave them disapproving frowns because they were late.

Nott, who had already arrived, had saved seats for them and called them over to the corner of the room which he occupied along with the sixth year Slytherins.

McGonagall was the one who started speaking first.

"Now that our seventh years have kindly joined us, we may begin to brief you about the particulars of the House Cup Tournament."

She surveyed the room to make sure she had everyone's full attention.

"As Professor Dumbledore said, the Houses of Hogwarts have merged which leads us to where we are now; Slytherins and Gryffindors sitting together in a single Common Room.

"Since our Houses have joined in a merger, Professor Snape and I expect the Gryffindor and Slytherin students to behave as members of the same House."

Doubtful expressions creeped on many students' faces.

Professor McGonagall continued to speak.

" We request that you let go of all previous bad feelings and instead focus on getting to know one another better.

"We face against clever opponents, the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs, and if they, too, get over their mutual feelings of distrust, they will become worthy opponents and contenders for the House Cup. Hard work and intelligence are an useful duo.

"Although, Gryffindors and Slytherins have had...a _colourful_ past, the fact remains that the House Cup has been won by one of these two houses for the past three decades."

A few students applauded at this, mostly the first years who hadn't had time to let House rivalry sink into their mindsets.

Professor McGonagall looked approvingly at them, and then turned to the audience at large.

"However, if we are not able to overcome our small prejudices, we might have to relinquish that title."

At this, her face turned grim. Proffesor McGonagall never liked the Slytherins very much, but she liked one thing even less. _Losing._ In fact, it was one of the things that she and Snape agreed upon, and the main reason they were acting in a civil manner towards each other.

"I hope we all understand this." She looked around the room. "I want everyone to truthfully try to resolve their issues and try to work together form now on." She looked pointedly at Ron, who was muttering under his breath.

"You might feel at times that the members of the other houses are too sly, double-faced, or too selfish for your tastes but-"

Snape took over.

"You might also feel that the members of the other house are too cocky, try too much to be heroes, are woefully unintelligent, and favour brawn over brains but-". He stopped after receiving a murderous glare from the Scotswoman beside him.

He gulped.

"I think this is a time to apologise to each other for any injustices you have performed to them." He looked at Harry.

Harry supposed that was the closest thing he would get to a sorry for all the unpleasantness over the years.

Snape quickly changed the topic.

"Now, as Dumbledore has mentioned, there are going to be changes to the Quidditch Cup. The first thing that we have to do is to form a new team representing our merger. The current captains of the Slytherin and Gryffindor teams will now be co-captains of this new team. I understand that conflict may arise due to the fact that both the captains play the same position, but you're going to have to work this out yourselves."

Draco and Harry were looking daggers at each other, both resolving not to let the other take his spot.

"The captains will form the new team, which will contain the best players from both House squads. The next Quidditch match is scheduled for next Saturday, so I advise you to not tarry with the formation of the squad."

Several members of the two House teams looked downcast at this announcement, as they realised it would be twice as hard to get into the joint squad.

"Professor Dumbledore also mentioned other events to be planned this year keeping the changed House Cup in mind...

"These events will be announced at least week in advance and you will be given time to prepare for these.

"The seating arrangements in the Great Hall will be changed from tomorrow morning. The first, second, sixth, and seventh years from both Houses will be seated at the Gryffindor table, while the third, fourth, and fifth years of both Houses will be seated at the Slytherin table."

There was no reaction from the students. They had been expecting something of the likes of this ever since Dumbledore had hinted at different seating arrangements.

" Classes will proceed as normal, and I beg all of you, as one of the mentors of our merger, to not do any foolish deeds as they will result in the deduction of points. It is crucial we do our best in order to win."

Snape narrowed his eyes Jamie Cox and Tom Bagg, the current generation Hogwarts pranksters.

"Professor McGonagall and I have also installed a magical doorway between the House Common Rooms with the objective of more interaction between the Houses in view. You may freely pass from one Common Room to another, and we request you to use it.

"A great way to interact with your peers would be to set up homework or study groups having members from both House", interjected Profoessor McGongall.

Most of the students looked aghast at the mention of studying. Hermione simply beamed. She, in fact, was the one who suggested this idea to the Professors.

"You may proceed back to your dormitories, any further announcements will be put up in the notice boards." Snape dismissed the students.

"We would like the sixth and seventh year students to, please, stay back."

Emily looked at Ginny with a confused expression. _What could they want with us?..._

Once the professors had made sure that all the younger students were back in their dormitories and there weren't any of them lingering at the top the staircase trying to listen to what they were about to say, Professor McGonagall started to speak.

"As senior students of Hogwarts, most of you should be aware that you are role models for the younger ones.

" We realise that this new merger system will be hard to adapt to in the first couple of days. S we would like to ask for your cooperation in this matter.

"All this bad blood between the two Houses is not a good foundation for a merger to work.

"That is why we ask for your help. If you could be seen every evening in each others' Common Rooms and sitting together at the House tables, it would set an example for the lower years to follow.

"For the first two weeks, we expect you to be in each others' company as much as possible. Professor Snape and I will be monitoring you to make sure you do this."

The Slytherins had frowns in their faces and the Gryffindors looked warily at each other.

"If any student is unwilling to follow our expectations of conduct, they will be given detention for a week.

_Damn, she's actually serious!, _thought Draco in his head.

"However, we are sure that we won't face any trouble like that from you.", said Snape with a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes and looked more like a grimace.

"Off to bed, all of you. Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter, I expect the tryouts to be conducted tomorrow, as it is a Saturday. We cannot waste time practising for the match.", commanded McGonagall in a stern voice.

Everyone shuffled off to bed. The Slytherins walked through the magic portal and stepped out in a corner of their Common Room.

_Fantastic!_ thought Ginny sarcastically,_We're going to have to see Draco's ugly face first thing in the morning tomorrow at breakfast, ugh._

She couldn't hear it but Emily, Harry and Ron were agreeing with her in their heads.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**A/N: So basically, there's just an explanation of what's going to be coming in the next chapters so everyone's clear.**

**i have to say, it's quite depressing to her only two reviews for the last chapter, so can you guys fix that? Thank you to those who have reviewed!**

**Please R&R!**

**THANK YOU FOR READING! :)**

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**FOR NEXT UPDATE DATE, CHECK MY PROFILE! **From now on, update dates will be posted my profile so you guys know exactly when the next update is :)


	12. Chapter 12 : The Quidditch Team

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

**XXXXXXXXXXXX**

It was time for breakfast in the Great Hall.

Draco and Blaise were wondering where to sit. There were two open spaces by the Potter gang and there were two seats by some ickle first years at the far end of the table. The other Slytherins were seated in a group at one end of the table but there was no more space for the two boys.

That might have partly due to the fact that Crabbe and Goyle took space for two.

They could sit by the Gryffindors and deal with nasty looks throughout breakfast or they could face McGongall and Snape's wrath by sitting farther away from them.

Blaise snuck a glance at the teachers' table and saw Professor McGonagall glaring at them for their hesitation. He gulped and dragged Draco towards the seats by the senior Gryffindors.

Ginny and Hermione were in a heated discussion about house elf rights, while the others watched, not wanting to take sides.

As soon as Draco and Blaise sat down, there was complete silence.

Then Parvati threw a dirty look at Malfoy and threw her hair over one shoulder and continued to speak to Lavender. Draco almost cowered under the glare she had sent him.

Ginny smiled into her porridge. Her day was already much better.

The two Slytherin boys reached over and started to pile stuff onto their plates. Slowly conversation resumed as normal.

Hermione had forgotten about her previous argument with Ginny and was now chatting up Neville about the medicinal properties of the Australian plant _heelicus acnaes. _Apparently, it was a good solution for stubborn pimples.

Ron and Harry were discussing about the Chudley Cannon's prospects in this year's CQT (Club Quidditch Tournament).

Ginny and Emily were discussing their homework essay for Professor Vector. Emily had forgotten completely about the essay and was furiously scribbling away. Ginny was making sure she hadn't forgotten the main points of the essay, although that wasn't necessary as Emily seemed to have all the information she needed in her head, already.

As she wasn't of much use, Ginny occasionally joined Ron and Harry's conversation by cracking a joke on The Chudley Cannon's winning chances which promptly made her brother's ears turn red every time.

"Hey Ron, guess why the Chudey Cannon's beater had to apologise to his Chaser?"

Undeterred by her brother's lack of reaction, she continued, "Cause he thought that the Chaser's head was a Bludger!".

Both Harry and Emily rolled their eyes. It was an awful joke but Ron seemed to take the bait anyway.

"Hey!-", Ron exclaimed.

Blaise silently chuckled. The Weaslette sure knew how to get under her brother's skin.

Draco cleared his throat at this instant. He drew the attention of everyone nearby.

"Potter, we have to discuss the Quidditch team roster today."

Harry nodded slowly. "When should we do it?"

"We have a free period after Lunch. I was thinking we could do it then."

Harry nodded again.

Ginny was surprised by how civil both were behaving to each other. _The calm before the storm_, she thought.

* * *

The seventh year Slytherins and Gryffindors were all seated in the Slytherin Common Room. Both groups had a free period.

The sixth years had a class with Flitwick after lunch, but were told that there was going to be no class today, as the Professor had a nasty incident in a previous class when a misplaced jinx by a younger student ended up turning his skin into jelly. He was being patched up Mdam Pompfrey and would be in the Hospital Wing for a day or two.

Draco and Harry were seated on opposite sides of a circular table with their respective House members flanking them from behind.

It looked like a scene in a gangster movie when the two mafia bosses would strike a deal.

In between them, there was a parchment which read "Gryffindor-Slytherin Merger Quidditch Team" on which the various positions were listed and spaces kept beside each position to indicate the name of the player in that's position.

Draco and Harry had already spent ten minutes bickering over whose House name should come first in the a merger name, and it hand only been resolved because Harry had pointed out that alphabetically wise Gryffindor came first. Draco huffed at that but didn't protest.

"Shall we start with the Beaters?", Harry asked.

"Fine.", replied Draco sulkily.

"We have to choose two beaters from the following: Zabini, Coote, Peakes, and Crabbe. I vote for Zabini and Coote because his left arm is stronger than Peakes."

"Okay, I was about to say the same", Draco surprisingly agreed. The spirit of Quidditch got to him and made him serious, all of a sudden.

A magically enchanted quill write the names down on the parchment beside the word "Beaters".

"Lets move on to the Keepers.", said Harry.

"I vote for Nott."

"I vote for Weasley."

The captains glared at each other.

"Nott has more experience, he's been playing for five years now."

"Ron hasn't missed a single goal yet this season."

"But you've played _one _game this season!", Draco fumed.

"And it was against you, in case you've forgotten.", replied Harry smugly.

"Nott had a cold that day. He was playing sick. That's why he couldn't stop the Quaffle."

Harry opened his mouth but Hermione interjected first.

"Why don't you have a small tryout on the Quidditch pitch this evenings. That way we can see who's better."

Ron gave her a nasty look, obviously feeling betrayed.

"Fine", said Draco

"Fine", agreed Harry.

"Now it's time to choose the Chasers. We have to choose from Goyle, Thames, Walters, Bell, Robins, and Weasley."

"I vote for Ginny."

"The Weaslette squirms her way into the squad."

Ginny glared at Draco.

Draco just ignored her. "I say we keep Elizabeth. She's a good one."

"Okay then, we'll keep Thames on the squad. For the last position, I reccommend Demelza."

"What about Bell?"

"You mean, Katie's younger sister?"

"Yea, that one. Curly brown hair."

"Rachel isn't experienced enough. She can join the team next year."

"We have our three Chasers then. "

The quill scratched against the parchment.

It was time to choose the Seeker. Tension built in the air.

"Look Malfoy, I say that we have a little competition amongst ourselves and see who can catch the snitch first at try-outs this evening. Winner becomes seeker, loser becomes team manager and coach and also remains co-captain."

Draco thought for a moment. It seemed fair.

"Okay. Deal."

And they shook hands.

* * *

It was almost dusk. Almost the whole school was in the Quidditch stands. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, having been unable to decide on their squad had decided to hold a full try-out for the team while the Gryffindors and Slytherins were curious as to who would become the Seeker and Keeper for their team.

Theodore Nott mounted his broom first. Ron's turn would come later. The idea was simple. Whoever could save the most amount of goals out of five Quaffle thrown at them would become the team Keeper.

Demelza Robins was getting ready to throw Quaffles at Nott. She threw the first one.

He missed.

Ron smiled.

She threw the next one.

He missed again.

Ron felt even better.

She threw another one.

He saved it.

Draco and Blaise cheered like mad.

Another Quaffle coming his way...

He saved this one too!

Ron was biting his nails by now.

Demelza put all her power into the last Quaffle, but it was to no avail. He saved the last one too.

Nott punched the air and dismounted. He walked over to the bench where Malfoy and Zabini were sitting. As he was walking back, he gave a cheeky wink at Pansy. Unfortunately, Parvati thought it was for her and almost swooned.

It was Ron's turn now. Elizabeth Thames took the Quaffle from Demelza and got ready to throw. She was actually a good Chaser but everyone knew Chasers had to depend on their teammates just as much as their own skills to be successful. Unfortunately for Thames, she had complete dunderheads as teammates.

She threw the first one. Her hand slipped a bit and Ron was able to catch it easily. She swore.

She threw the next one with slightly better aim but Ron was still able to catch it.

Ron couldn't help the pleased smile that creeped onto his face.

Elizabeth threw the next one with renewed force.

It slipped through Rin's fingers and it was his turn to swear now.

She then faked left but threw right, confusing him, and getting the Quaffle through the rim. They didn't call Slytherins cunning for nothing.

It was down to the last shot. If Ron missed it, it would be Nott as keeper.

Ron tried to concentraten but was distracted when Thames winked at him. His mouth hung open and was in no state to block the last Quaffle shot by him.

Elizabeth was pleased with herself. She dusted her hands off and gracefully slid to the ground.

Ron realised that it had all been a trick and kicked the ground in frustration when he touched down.

"The keeper's Nott.", Draco instructed the magic quill cheerfully and then went to get his broom.

Harry grabbed his broom and swore to avenge his friend.

The House Captains soared into the air. Madam Hooch held the snitch between her fingers.

"Remember boys, whoever get the snitch first will be the team Seeker."

She counted to three and let go of the snitch.

It immediately zoomed all over the pitch with the two boys hot on its trail. They were just three blurs all around the pitch.

They had been flying for about five minutes, when Harry gained a lead over Mafoy and inched his broom a bit further ahead to grab the snitch out if the air.

He lost his balance and tumbled to the ground but quickly got up with a triumphant yell.

Draco got down as well.

"I, Harry Potter, am the Seeker", he instructed the magic quill to write.

He tapped his thrat once with his wand and made his voice magnified.

"The Gryffindor-Slytherin team is officially I, Weasley, Robins, Thames, Nott, Zabini, and Coote.", he announced to applause.

He tapped his throat once again and turned to Draco.

"How does it feel to lose, Malfoy?", he jabbed at his opponent.

"Watch it, Potter, you can't go around taunting your coach.", replied Draco smugly. In fact he wasnt of hung up about his loss. In fact ther only reason he refused to give the Seeker position outright to Potter was because he didn't want to give what he wanted so easily.

Draco wouldn't mind being coach actually. It would just be another good reason to boss people around.

"Okay, everybody, listen up! First practice will be tomorrow evening at 5:00 sharp. Anyone late will have to do five laps around the pitch.", Draco announced. He was enjoying this coach stint more and more already.

Harry and the rest if the team members started to grumble, including Blaise.

Trust Malfoy to take into his head withing five minutes of receiving a post of authority.

Everyone moved off the pitch and started towards the dorm rooms.

The Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff try outs were about to finish as well.

**XXXXXXX**

**A/N: There will be more dialogue in the next chapter, I promise! :)**

**Thank you for the response for the last chapter, darlings! Thank you for going out of your way to leave a kind message for me! :) I really appreciate it.**

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**Please R&R!**

**THANK YOU FOR READING! :)**

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	13. Chapter 13: The Practice

**Disclaimer:**

**(Start Song)**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

**I'm just a jobless rotter**

**I think JKR has a daughter**

**Hermione's patronus is an otter.**

**(End Song)**

**There is a reason I write prose, and not poetry. (Shocking, right? :)**

**XXXXXXXXX**

The next day passed by with minimal interaction between the Slytherin and Gryffindor seniors as they didn't have a single class together. There had been no outburst between members of the two Houses...at least not yet, and so far they were behaving well with no violence being reported partly in fact due to the stern warning issued by McGonagall and Snape at the joint House meeting the day before the previous.

The first Quidditch practice was scheduled for that evening, and Draco reminded everyone about it to make sure they wouldn't forget. After all, it wouldn't do for the team members to show up late at his first practice as coach.

To say that Draco was enjoying his new position would be an understatement. Being given power made him happy, simple as that and he was definitely looking forward to the practice in the evening.

At a quarter to five, Malfoy walked down to the pitch to make sure everything was ready for his team.

His team.

How much he liked those two words.

_Ahh!_ He thought and internally sighed. _A legitimate excuse to make Potter and his cronies listen to every word I say._

He still had a smile on his face when the team arrived at five o'clock sharp.

He conjured up a whistle with his wand and blew on it for effect although he had everyone's attention already.

"Okay, listen up! I want everyone from this instant onwards to call me Coach Malfoy. Our aim is to win the Quidditch Cup. We have three matches to play, and it is my intention to make sure we win all three. We are going to be relentlessly practising from this day onwards, so if any of you are weak-hearted, you can leave now."

He paused. All present had incredulous expressions plastered on their faces. Even Blaise thought that Malfoy was taking it a bit far.

"Now, lets warm up by taking three complete rounds of the Quidditch Pitch"

"Wha-!"

"But-"

"You can't-!"

He was met by protests by everyone. He solved it by giving his whistle on good blow which led everyone covering their ears in protest and starting to jog.

"The last one to finish has to do an extra twenty push ups!", he shouted after them.

They finished about fifteen minutes later, panting, sweaty, tired.

"Drop down and give me twenty"

Several curses could be heard from team-members. Ginny in particular was letting loose a constant stream of curses under his breath. Draco heard a few and decided to ask,

"Mind speaking a bit louder, Weasley?"

"No problem, Coach, I was just saying how you're the best coach in the world and how I'm going to send you a nice bouquet of flowers for your birthday."

"Good. That's what I thought I heard."

Ginny scowled at Malfoy.

"For the record, Weasley, I like carnations."

Malfoy then ordered them up into the air, where he started making them practise for about three quarters of an hour when a rogue Bludger, escaping Zabini's and Coote's bats, managed to hit Demelza in the face.

"Time out!", called out Malfoy.

Demelza had tears running down her face and her mouth was bleeding.

"Well hurry up, you know where the Hospital Wing is.", he dismissed his Chaser.

"The rest of you, I want you to continue practising."

"Are you mad, Malfoy? She's hurt!", screamed Ginny from the air.

"It's only a little blood, Weasley.", Draco tried to reassure her.

"She might have lost a tooth, you idiot!", she shouted at him.

"Malfoy, I think we should stop practise now.", agreed Harry.

Draco fumed at being told what to do.

"No! We have to practise more if we want to win the Quidditch Cup!"

"That's enough Malfoy! I'm captain of this team as well and I declare this practise session over. Everyone, head back to the changing rooms!"

Ginny had already dismounted her broom and taken Demelza to Madam Pompfrey.

The others touched ground and headed to change, like Harry had said.

As Blaise got off his broom, he patted Draco's back and told him, " Mate, you were about harsh there. The girl got hurt pretty bad.." He proceeded to the locker room.

Draco felt a little bit guilty. Just a little bit, mind you. He walked back to the Slytherin Common Room. It was almost dinner.

* * *

Dinner passed by quickly and after it, they had a bit of free time to do homework. Remembering Professor McGonagall's words, Blaise and Draco packed up their bags and books and headed over to the Gryffindor Common Room. It was unlikely that the Gryffindors would take the initiative considering the fiasco that happened at Quidditch practice that day. Along with the two boys came Theo Nott and Elizabeth Thames, who was a sixth year Slytherin and had consequently been there when McGonagall gave her speech on extra co-operation being needed from the seniors.

They stepped through the portal and headed over to where the Potter gang was sitting.

Draco matter-of-factory pulled up chair next to Hermione. After all, if he was going to get some homework done, he might as well be seated next to the brainiac.

Hermione didn't seem at all surprised that he chose to sit next to her. She was probably used to people doing that by now, and was not fooled by their intentions.

Ron was on the other side of Hermione, looking at Draco suspiciously.

Blaise chose took the seat next to Draco, which happened to be next to Emily.

"Hey", he greeted.

She just waved her hand slightly in acknowledgment.

He nodded at Harry who sitting near Emily as well.

Ginny was on the other side of Harry.

Their and Elizabeth took the remaining seats at the work table at which they were seated. Immediately, Parvati appeared beside Nott and brought a chair along with her.

"Hi, Theo", she crooned.

He just made a non committal grunt in reply.

The Gryffindors were surprised that the Slytherins had come over to their Common Room. They had thought that they would have to be the ones marching into the snakes' Common Room in order to to appease McGonagall's wrath.

Draco wasted no time in getting acquainted.

"Granger, what's the literal translation of the rune _kukha?"_

"Dog."

"Excuse me?"

"Dog."

"Did you just call me a mutt."

"No, Malfoy, the translation of the rune is a dog."

"Oh."

A few seconds later..

"Granger, what's the translation of the rune _pani?_

_"_Water."

"And _neelu?_

"Another word for water."

"_mataji?"_

"I'm not a rune dictionary, Malfoy. I'm sure even someone with your IQ level knows how to look up words."

Ron snickered in the corner.

" 'Mione, could you help with the spell we learnt in Transfig today, I'm having a bit of trouble with the wand movements", Ron asked.

"You should have been paying attention in class, Ronald."

It was Draco's turn to snicker now.

In the meanwhile, Theodore Nott was having a hard time concentrating on finishing his homework...

"Theo, would you please show me how to move my arm for the Bat-Repelling Charm that we learnt in Charms", asked Parvati coyly.

"Uh...look, Patil I haven't learnt it myself."

"Nonsense, I saw you in class that day. You cast a perfect charm. Can you please help me?", she asked persistently, fluttering her eyelashes.

"...it must have been some other Theodore Nott. Nope, not me!", said Theo desperately.

Elizabeth was sniggering behind her hand.

"You find something funny here, Thames?", asked Parvati archly.

"Nope, nothing at all, Patil. I was just about to convince Theo to help you, since he's so good at Charms from what I heard", she managed to say with a straight face.

Theo glared at Elizabeth.

"Yup, quite the _charmer,_ he is."

Elizabeth winked at Theo and resumed her reading of the book, "101 Ways To Improve Your Wingman Skills".

Parvati decided she like that girl Thames all of a sudden.

Emily was poring over her book, " The Ways of Muggles", in order to prepare for her Muggle Studies Quiz the next day.

Blaise was also reading a book but was frequently sneaking glances at Pratcher.

Unfortunately, he didn't catch her eye like he wanted to, but he managed to catch the eye of someone else.

"Have trouble focussing, Zabini?", asked Harry stiffly.

"Oh yes, I find that other things nearby are much more..._interesting", _drawled Blaise with a challenging look at Harry.

"Hermione, what's the difference between a tellievision and a moovee? They seem like the same thing", asked Emily confused and completely oblivious to what was going on.

"Here, let me help you", offered Harry and started to explain. Emily was genuinely interested in the ways of the Muggle; although her parents were both half-bloods, she had been brought up completely in the wizarding world.

Her expressions ranged from confusion to excitement to awe as Harry explained all the things that television and movies could do.

"You mean to say, that a television receives a signal from outer space and...", exclaimed Emily.

Blaise didn't feel like watching anymore. He grabbed his satchel of books and started to leave the Gryffindor Common Room.

Draco didn't notice his friend had left the room because he was preoccupied in an argument with Ginny who had just returned from dinner.

"What are you doing here, ferret?"

"Socialising, if I might say."

"And why did you decide you had to be in our Common Room to do it?"

"Forgotten the talk with McGonagall, have we? We're supposed to set examples for others, Weasley, although I understand if you're not used to doing that, seeing that no one looks up to you."

"Arrrgh, you say one more word about me, you'll find yourself in the Hospital Wing, I'm warning you!"

"Tut, tut, that attitude is not going to get you anywhere. Might want to learn how to cool that fiery temper of yours, don't you think?", Draco taunted.

Ginny took out her wand and was prepared to cast a hex at him, when Hermione stopped her.

"Sorry, Ginny, I'm going to have to stop your it's my duty as Head Girl to prevent violence and I'm afraid I have to issue detention to you."

Ginny gaped at Hermione.

"But 'Mione!-"

"Sorry, Gin, it's in the rule handbook."

Ginny made a frustrated noise and stomped up the staircase.

"It's a wonder how she hasn't killed anyone with that unruly temper of hers."commented Draco.

The Gryffindors at the table just glared at him.

Sensing danger, Draco immediately gathered his books and left towards his Common Room muttering something about an unfed pet.

Many things could be said about Draco, but one couldn't deny he had an excellent sense of self-preservation.

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**A/N: _Read and review_**

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	14. Chapter 14: The First Days

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The team despite their differences were united in their goal of defeating Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and that was the main reasons than the team put up with Malfoy's crazy practice sessions. Although everyone hated them, they secretly agreed that his training regime had brought about a marked improvement in their performance in the short span of a week.

"C'mon now Robins, finish off that last lap quick and then start on the push-ups! We have to be in best form against the Ravens and the Badgers on the day of the match!"

Demelza grumbled and replied, "Yes, Coach", and hastened to follow his instructions.

Every day, the team would follow the same set of actions. After the day's classes they would put their books away, feed their pets, head towards the Quidditch pitch and change into Quidditch robes in the lockers.

After a two hour gruelling practice, they would shower, head up for dinner, and then shuffled over to the Gryffindor Common Room to start in the day's homework.

Sixth and seventh year course loads were no joke and they were barely able to manage their schedules with Quidditch practice and homework taking up most of their time.

They all sat together to get work done and the professors had been right when they said that the younger kids looked up to the older ones. It wasn't unusual to see Gryffindors and Slytherins to be sitting together, sharing jokes, and simply enjoying one another's company. It was a severely drastic change from the situation a week ago, when hexes used to fly between members of the two houses.

They had reached a conclusion regarding Gryffindors and Slytheirns. Deep inside, they weren't much different, both types craving for recognition and glory.

Emily, not being on the team would spend some time before the Quidditch team stomped in to get a head start in her homework, along with Ron and Hermione.

It was a wonder to her how Hermione ever managed to get studying done, seeing that she was always bickering with Ron.

"Ron, you have to add two sprigs of rosemary to the Pain Relieving Potion, not three!"

"It's three, Hermione, not two. I distinctly remember Snape telling Malfoy secretly that three would give better results!"

"But that's not what the book says, Ronald!"

"We'll, I don't care, I'm going to do it this way. Anyway, it's not like as if _your _potion was all that great in class last time!"

"That's because Ernie stumbled backwards into my cauldron, spilling half of it!"

"Excuses, excuses!", replied Ron childishly.

"For Merlin's sake, Ronald!"

Emily usually retreated to a corner to do her work peacefully whenever the two got too loud often giving them a scolding or two while at it.

"HERMIONE JEAN GRANGER AND RON BILIUS WEASLEY, IF YOU TWO CANNOT STOP FIGHTING EACH WITH EACH OTHER FOR THE SPAN OF TWO MINUTES STRAIGHT, THEN YOU WOULD REALIZE THAT OTHER PEOPLE IN THE ROOM ARE TRYING TO STUDY!"

In a week, that specific corner had been recognised by all as "Pratcher's corner".

Each day, once they were finished with their practice, they stomped upstairs to the Common Room, and dumped their books into the various couches and chairs of the Common Room, ready to tackle their homework.

They had formed a routine now. Draco would usually pester Hermione with questions, out of which about three out of five were somewhat politely answered. Emily suspected that it was just to irritate Ron, because almost everyone knew that he had a crush on the bushy haired girl since second-year and the ones who didn't know probably lived under a rock. The fact that Draco only asked questions about the courses which Ron didn't take in order to prevent him from butting in and answering them himself was further evidence for this hypothesis.

"Hey Hermione, I'm really looking forward to planning my Ancient Runes study schedhule with you. After all, you _are _the class topper. Also, could you help with the wand arm movements for that new spell we learnt in Arithmancy to find out prime numbers?"

Draco had said this one evening in front of Ron which left Ron fuming about "stuck-up ferrets" for the best part of the hour.

Draco and Ginny however avoided each other like the plague as when they usually started talking to each other, it would end up in an argument.

Here was a sample of what happened on Tuesday:

"Hey Weaslette, how do you get a redhead to argue with you?"

"Sod off, Malfoy", replied Ginny.

"You just have say something", answered Draco with a cheeky smile.

"MALFOY, IF YOU DONT SHUT UP RIGHT THIS INSTANT, I WILL TAKE MY BROOMSTICK AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR- "

At this point, Emily slapped her hand against Ginny's mouth, to prevent the younger kids in the room from losing their innocence.

"See, I was right!", taunted Malfoy with smug grin on his face.

Since Ginny couldn't speak, she had to resort to crude hand gestures instead, most of which would make blush if she ever saw.

Theodore Nott, on the other hand was facing his own set of problems. Parvati Patil had found a new boy to stalk this week, and much to Theo's horror, it ended up being him.

Every day, when Theo came to do his homework, Parvati would sashay over to him and flirt.

"Hi, Theo. We may not be in Proffesor Flitwick's class, but I still find you charming". She would them bat her eyelashes like a new student in Professor Trelawney's smoke filled room and touch him "accidentally".

Parvati's pick up lines terrified Theo so much that stopped coming to to the Gryffindor Common Room, hoping to study in peace.p in the Sytherin Dungeon but that didn't stop Parvati at all. She simply picked up her own books and crossed the magical doorway into the Dungeon.

"Theo! Are we studying here today? Did you know, I always found your Common Room soooo fascinating, _just like you!"_

Theodore Nott got more and more desperate each and every day until finally he reached his breaking point.

"THAT'S ENOUGH PATIL! I DO NOT LIKE YOU AND WILL NEVER DO SO, EITHER!"

He then stood up and grabbed the nearest girl to him, and kissed full on the lips, hoping that Parvati got the message.

Parvati had gotten the message crystal clear. She broke out into tears and wailed, "I thought we actually had something special going on! Ugh, boys!". She exited the room sobbing and left Theo in peace.

Theo was about the sigh in relief, when he received a stinging slap on the face.

"How dare you kiss that whore, Theo! Out of all the boys I've dated, I wouldn't _you _to be the one who cheated on me! WE'RE OVER!", shouted Pansy and left the room crying as well.

Theodore Nott certainly hadn't been thinking about his girlfriend when he kissed that random girl next to him. He rubbed his cheek and wondered how he could have been so stupid.

Wait.

He kissed a random girl.

Someone he didn't know.

He turned his head frantically to look for the girl whom he had kissed to say sorry.

He saw Elizabeth looking at him with hurt eyes. She had tears welling up too

"You know, Nott, I thought we was your friend. Not a "whore" as your girlfriend called me, to use whenever you wanted to get rid of someone."

She was disgusted with him and made no attempt to hide it.

"Don't you dare talk to me again!", she shouted at him and ran down the stairs to her dormitory.

Theodore sank into the chair wondering how he managed to end up in the bad side of three girls at the same time. It must be some type of Hogwarts record.

He shuddered and felt thankful that none of them had thought to use their wands. All three were accomplished witches.

He tried not to think about the next few days which he would have to go through and decided to start that Astronomy essay due the next day.

While all this drama unfolded, Emily was happily working away in her secluded corner of the Common Room. She was usually joined by Harry, who also had no desire to be part of Hermione's and Ron's daily arguments.

They usually spent time doing their homework first and then started conversation. Their topics usually ranged from the Quidditch and daily Hogwarts life to the most obscure subjects in the wizarding world.

Blaise usually had no choice but to join the, each evening as there wasnt much space anywhere else in the Gryffindor Common Room, and McGonagall made daily checks to make sure that the students were "mingling".

Emily found him to be surprisingly good company. He would usually add on to whatvever conversation at hand and had a well-developed sense of humour.

The other day, Harry and Emily were talking about how Filch's "relationship" with Madam Pince.

"I heard that Madam Pince was found snogging Filch in the second last book aisle at the far end of the library, five years ago", Emily supplied.

Harry made a disgusted face and then said, "Well, that would explain how both of them are always out to get students. I swear, every single time a students leaves the library, the woman alerts Flch so he can track them down to give them detention for stomping on his clean floors."

"A match made in heaven", Emily solemnly observed.

Blaise interrupted at this point.

"No, that's not possible. Filch would never go for Pince. She's not his type."

"How do you know?", asked Emily curiously.

"Well, first of all there's only one female which has his undivided attention right now and I doubt anyone else could and her place."

"Who?", asked Emily. Her interest was definitely piqued.

Harry, on the other hand, was looking annoyed that he didn't have Emily's full attention.

"It's obvious", explained Blaise.

Emily raised her eyebrows in question.

" of course. Filch has a thing for his cat, I swear! If it was legal, he probably would have married it by now", said Blaise.

Emily burst into laughter.

Harry attempted to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

"I guess it's true", she agreed. "They _are _pretty much devoted to each other."

"More than any cat and human have a right to be", said Blaise with mock serious expression on his face.

Emily started chuckling again.

This was how it would go every evening. Blaise increasingly joined in their conversation, and unconsciously Harry stopped contributing towards it.

Emily was a little irritated that while Blaise seemed to be completely open towards the idea of the House merger and inter house unity, Harry was acting like a small kid fixated on his prejudices. In order to stop Blaise from thinking that all Gryffindors were rude, she found herself supplying more talk in order to make up for the fact that Harry almost never did.

Emily and Blaise had struck an unlikely camaderie by the end of the week.

Poor Harry, misguided by his own jealous feelings, felt more and more lonely during the evenings, not able to realize the fact that it was his fault only, that no one wanted to talk to him. After all, who wanted to talk to sulky teenager who didn't make any effort for conversation.

One evening, as Harry was late for dinner, he arrived at the Common Room past his usual time and was about to make his way over to his usual seat by Emily when he saw the two of them, deep in conversation.

Blaise was whispering something in Emily's ears to which she threw her head back and laughed. She smiled at him and then said something that made him chuckle as well.

The green monster in Harry's stomach was roaring again.

For the first time in two weeks, Harry sat by Ron and Hermione to do homework.

He reflected sadly that they didn't even seem to notice. His face took on a look of determination and he resolved to get "his" Emily back in one way or another from that snivelling Slytherin.

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**A/N: So just an update on how relations are between the houses. Interesting stuff coming up! I'm going to warn you thought, that I'm not planning on doing commentary for the next match. I might do it for the ones after that, I'll see.**

**Three reviews, people? c'mon guys, you can do better than that!**

**THANKS YOU FOR READING AND REVIEW PLEASE!**


	15. Chapter 15: The Trick Wall (Part 1)

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It was an hour past midnight, and Ginny had woken up from her sleep. She felt immensely restless and after fifteen minutes of trying to get back to sleep to no avail, she decided to take a short walk down the stairs of her dormitory, to get some fresh air.

She tiptoed softly, to not disturb her dorm mates, all of whom were light sleepers, a fact which she had cursed many a time.

She pulled her robe closer towards her and yawned widely as she slowly stepped down the stairs.

The Room was deserted as expected. The House Elves didn't start their cleaning work until four in the morning.

She strode across the room and sat in the comfy orange armchair by the fireplace, her favourite one. A small amount of moonlight streamed in through the tall stained glass windows and the room was cast in shadows.

She curled up her feet and yawned once more. Her eyes were drooping but her mind refused to let her go to sleep.

She had been sitting there for about ten minutes in solitude when suddenly she was alerted by a strange noise. There was someone appearing through the magic portal from the Slytherin side

Ginny cursed the fact that she didn't have her wand with her.

The late night intruder seemed to not have taken notice of her and stealthily made their way over to the portrait hole. The silhouetted figure seemed to be masculine and he was definitely tall.

He was wearing black all over, and a black balaclava on his face, making him impossible to identify. From his height, Ginny concluded that he was an upper year student. Not many fourth years were 5 ft 11" .

Ginny was confused. Why would someone walk into the Gryffindor Common Room just to exit it?

They must be heading somewhere else, Ginny realised, and were using the Gryffindor portrait hole as a shortcut.

Ginny tried to get up silently but tripped over a book lying on the floor and fell to the ground with a loud thump. From her position in the ground, Ginny could see that the title of the book she had fell on was, "Stealth Tracking Tips for Aurors: How to be Avoid being Detected."

The intruder turned around and searched for the sound of the noise. He heard the Ginny's quiet moan when she fell and could easily find her lying on the ground by the fireplace.

The intruder had his wand out, as quick as lightning, and cast a body bind spell on Ginny.

Ginny would have swore if she could.

He made his way over to her, and Ginny was only able to see his face when he stopped right in front of her. He recognised who she was , took off his balaclava, and lifted the Body Bind Spell.

"Fancy seeing you at this hour, Weasley", greeted Malfoy.

"I could very well say the same, Malfoy", growled Ginny in response, angry that she had been caught unaware without her wand.

"Didn't know you had an aversion to sleep, Weaslette. Of course, that _would _explain your foul mood in general", he thought to himself with a seemingly thoughtful expression on his face.

"Cut the talk, Malfoy. Why are you stalking around like common thief in our Common Room?", asked Ginny.

"Your words wound me indeed, oh nastily freckled redhead", replied Draco dramatically. "I simply thought that I could do with some fresh air so I thought that I would hop over to your cozy little Common Room here."

"And then you decided to exit through out portrait hole while wearing the complete outfit of a bank vault robber, huh? I'm not dumb, Malfoy. Tell why you're really here", demanded Ginny.

Draco took an exaggerated sigh.

"If you insist upon knowing, I received information from trusty sources that the Ravenclaw Captain has left their game play tactics in a piece of parchment which currently lays forgotten in the library. I am going to retrieve it and since the Gryffindor Tower is closer to the Library, I thought I would use this exit instead", explained Draco.

"You're risking detention and possibly suspension for a game of Quidditch?", asked Ginny incredulously.

Draco nodded as if it was the most plausible thing to do in the entire world.

"Now if you would excuse me, I have some work to do...", said Draco to Ginny.

"Hold on, Malfoy. How do you know that you're not being set up?", asked Ginny suspiciously.

"Because my sources are a hundred percent trustworthy", assured Draco.

Ginny raised an eyebrow and then said, "I dunno, it sounds pretty fishy to me..."

Draco shrugged and made his way over to the portrait hole.

"Malfoy! You better not risk this stupid excursion! If you get caught, you'll end up losing points for both houses!".

"It's worth the risk!", replied Draco.

Ginny huffed and then made up her mind.

"Fine, be stubborn! But I'm coming along to make sure someone watches your stupid back! I don't want our House points to be taken away before we even earn them in the Quidditch Cup".

Draco just ignored her.

Ginny grabbed Draco's wand, quickly transfigured her robe into something more suitable and summoned her last year's Halloween mask from her dormitory. She never knew dressing up as the infamous Gringott's theif, Ollie Tackme would be useful some day.

She quickly followed him through the portrait hole and the hallways of Hogwarts all the while making snide comments about him and lamenting the general stupidity of boys when it came to Quidditch. She also cursed herself once or twice for not having taken Harry's Invisibility Cloak before setting off, although she couldn't exactly imagine Harry being too pleased that his Cloak would be used by the Sytherin Prince, himself, Draco Malfoy.

Draco was acting as if he couldn't hear her talk.

They reached the library before he finally opened his mouth.

"Okay, Weasley, if you're _soo_ eager to get back to the Tower, I suggest you split up and help me search."

"And why would I want to, ferret?"

"The faster we get done here, the faster we can get out of here", pointed out Malfoy.

"Fine", heaved Ginny rolling her eyes as she did.

They were just done searching the first two book aisles of the library when they heard voices.

"Are you sure ,Argus, that two students are prowling in my library at this time of night?", asked Madam Pince.

"Yes I'm sure about it, Irma. I had a tip-off about it this evening. Apparently two hooligans plan to topple the bookshelves tonight, according my confidant."

Madam Pince gasped.

"Topple _my bookshelves?"_. Her voice sounded faint.

"Yes", said Filch grimly.

Ginny looked at Draco and mouthed a triumphant "_I told you_ _you've been set up!"_

Draco, on the other hand, was more worried about how they would escape from the library. Madam Pince and Filch were blocking the one and only.

Ginny motioned for Draco to follow her and creeped, catlike, towards the last book aisle of the library.

She stood up straight and reached for the third book from the left on the sixth shelf from the bottom. Immediately, a passage in the wall opened up.

Draco's mouth was hanging open.

However, this was no time to tarry, and the two Hogwarts staff members had heard the wall being opened.

"Wha-?! They're here, Irma! And they're escaping through the secret passageway!", exclaimed Filch and broke into a sprint which was quite fast for a man his age. Madam Pince was secretly impressed. She thought no one had known about that secret passageway for over two decades now.

Draco and Ginny were running at full speed now, with Filch hot on their tails. If Ginny had thought that her knowledge of the secret passageway might give them an edge over the caretaker, she was sadly mistaken. No one knew the secrets of Hogwarts better than its caretaker, and maybe the headmaster too.

The two teenagers stepped out of the tunnel which led from the passageway and found themselves on the sixth floor.

Draco led the way from here. Thankfully, Ginny was able to keep pace with the tall, blond, Slytherin due to the hardcore Quidditch practice they had several times a week.

"Quickly!", he urged as he led the way through another passageway behind the bust of Uric The Oddball. This was a well known "secret" passageway and definitely wouldn't deter Filch.

They were panting and out of breath by now. Ginny didn't have anymore stamina and stopped halfway throught the corridor clutching her side. Draco stopped abruptly when he didn't hear the sound of her footfalls behind him.

"I...can't...run...any...more", she gasped. She didn't care what consequences she would have to face once Filch found more. She was simply too tired.

She put a hand against the walk to steady herself, and what happened next made Draco's eyes become wide as saucers.

As soon as she had put her hand there, it seemed like some force grabbed her and pulled her _into _the wall.

"Weasley?...Weasey?", called out Draco. He was torn between his sense of self preservation and genuine worry for the redhead because Filch would find him any second now but on the other hand, he didn't want to be known as the last person to see Ginevra Weasey before she was swallowed alive by a Hogwarts wall.

He started to feel the wall up, trying to look for the place where Ginny had fallen through. That probably wasn't the best idea because after a few seconds of searching,he suddenly felt himself being jerked as if some invisible hook grabbed his shirt. He gave out a yelp and disappeared through the wall just as Filch rounded the corner.

Filch stopped in the hallway panting just like Ginny had been. His age was starting to show. He wondered where the troublemakers were now. He could have sworn that he had heard something just now.

_Oh well_, he thought. _At least the library has been saved from destruction_, he thought to himself pleased.

He mused over whether or not to ask for a pay raise when he told Dumbledore about this.

Enamoured by the thought of having more Galleons on his next payday, he started to walk back to the library to ask Irma if she would be kind enough to have a late night cup of cocoa with him.

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**Next time on "The Blond And The Ginger"...**

_A candle lit up from nowhere and illuminated a face._

_"AGHHH!", screamed Malfoy._

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_**Check my profile for next update!**_

_**THANK YOU FOR READING AND PLEASE REVIEW!**_

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**To rockprincess98: **Emily, Blaise, Draco, AND Ginny are included in my main characters list but unfortunately only two if them show up right now. I'm sorry if you clicked my story under an impression it was only going to Draco/Ginny. Thank you for reviewing.

**To Guest**: Thank you for reviewing and yes, Harry is a bit OOC but he is meant to be like that. Please keep reading!

**To all the people who have supported me so far: **THANK YOU!

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Thank you, Nutmeg44 for being alert, I have corrected those mistakes. I'm sorry that I wasn't more careful proof reading this chapter, it's just that I wrote this chapter at around 1 in the morning. As you can imagine, I probably was half asleep. i can't believe I confused Filius Flitwick, with Argus Filch. Makes me wonder what I was thinking...


	16. Chapter 16: The Trick Wall (Part 2)

**Previous chapter has been edited. Thank you for being alert when I wasn't. :)**

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Draco landed with a heavy thud.

"Ow!", he exclaimed.

He was lying on a cold, stone floor. He gingerly got up and dusted himself. He seemed to be in some sort of room. It was pitch black.

"Weasley?", he called out tentatively. He could tell that the room wasnt big at all, because he didnt hear an echo for his voice.

He was loath to admit it, but Malfoy always had a small weakness for the dark, ever since he was a little kid. It had started when Blaise had told him a scary story once when they were both eight years old about the crazy axe murderer who used to come at night to eat little children up. He never looked at dark rooms the same again.

"Weasley?", he called out a second time. He didn't move because he was afraid he might run into a wall. Not to mention a crazy axe murderer.

"Boo!", said a voice and suddenly a candle lit up from nowhere, illuminating a face.

"AGHHH!", screamed Malfoy.

Ginny started to laugh hysterically. She had no idea she would get such a reaction from Malfoy.

Once Malfoy realised who it was, he stopped trembling.

"That's not funny!", he shouted at Ginny who was holding a candle in her hand.

"I dunno 'bout that Malfoy...it seemed pretty funny to me!", replied Ginny with a grin on her face.

"Was not!"

"Keep telling yourself that, ferret. You should have seen the look on your face!"

Draco made an irritated sound.

"You mind telling me where exactly are we?", asked Draco.

Ginny shrugged and became serious. "I don't know but I'm not sure if we might be able to get out immediately."

"What do you mean?", asked Draco, suddenly panicky.

"Well, you know, Hogwarts, stuff changes. Doors which are open today might be non-existent tomorow?"

"Are you telling me that we'll be stuck here forever?", asked Draco horrified.

"No, of course not. Apparently these type of trick walls appear really often in Hogwarts. The twins have fallen into them loads of times while sneaking around the school at night."

Draco seemed slightly reassured. Out of all the Gryffindors, the only two whom he had a semblance of respect for were the Weasley twins. He actually found them to be quite hilarious. That is, of course, if he wasnt the one being pranked.

"So when will we get out?", asked Malfoy anxiously.

"Probably tomorrow morning. I dunno. It's my first time in one of these too and in case you've forgotten, it's completely _your _fault we're stuck here right now!", she accused, suddenly changing tones.

"How is it my fault?", asked Malfoy, outraged.

"Because it was _your _stupid idea to go masquerading as a theif all over the bloody damn school!", shouted Ginny in an increasingly shrill voice. She walked over to him and poked him in the chest with each word.

"Ow!", cried Malfoy for the second time.

She made a sound of disgust and walked back to where she was at the other end of the room. Although, judging by the size of the room, the other end was hardly five steps away.

"Where did you get the candle from?", asked Malfoy, eager to change the topic.

"It was lying on the floor. I actually tripped over it when I first fell in", replied Ginny casually.

"So what do we do now?", asked Malfoy.

"Do I look like the Encyclopedia of Hogwarts, Malfoy? Stop asking me questions which I don't know!"

"In case you've forgotten, Weaskey, we have a match to play tomorrow!", said Draco in a frantic voice.

Ginny's eyes widened. She _had _forgotten. She ran to one side of the room and stated to pound on the wall. "Help! Help!".

Draco eyed the ginger headed girl warily. Out of all the girls he could have ended up in a secret room with, he ended up with the one who was certifiably mental.

"Er, Weasley...", Draco started but was cut off. Ginny turned on him with a dangerous look on her face.

"_You!", _hissed Weasley malevolently.

Draco gulped. He was in for it now.

"_IF WE LOSE THE MATCH TOMORROW, IT WILL BE COMPLETELY YOUR FAULT, SO CONGRATULATIONS! DIDN'T IT EVER CROSS YOUR STUPID PEA SIZE BRAIN THAT-"_

Draco put his fingers in his ears now. The volume was a bit unbearable.

Judging from the expression on Ginny's face, she seemed to become ever more incensed and louder. But Draco wasnt going to risk his eardrums to check. No, he needed his hearing organs to be in working order, thank you very much.

After a a minute or two, when it looked like Ginny had finally subsided, he dared to take a finger out of one ear to check.

_"YOU IDIOTIC, BLOODY, STUPID PIG, YOU-"_

Nope, not done. He put his finger back in. She went on for another minute or so until she ran out of breath. She must be a great underwater swimmer, thought Malfoy.

"_You done, Weasley?"_

If looks could kill, Malfoy would have been dead in a second. Ginny glared at him, having exhausted her supply of insults in the last two minutes.

She huffed.

"Look here, Malfoy, I don't know how long we'll be stuck here but I definitely plan on being as far away from you as possible."

She drew a line with her toe on the ground.

"This side of the room is mine, that side is yours. You stay in your side, I'll stay on my side. You step onto my side, I strangle you. Clear?", she asked in a bossy tone.

"But your side is bigger!", protested Malfoy.

"Clear?", she repeated, this time threateningly. Draco swore he saw the glint of a madwoman in her eye and wisely made no further protest.

"Good", she declared, having gotten no reply. She walked over to a corner on her side and sat with her back against the wall.

Draco moved to do the same. For the best part of the next hour or so, there was complete silence in the room.

It was broken when Draco heard soft snores. Ginny had fallen asleep.

_At least she won't murder me in my sleep, _Draco thought with relief.

He was lying in the floor by now, with his back against the hard, stone, floor. Being used to comfy beds his whole life had made it hard for him to fall asleep. He kept tossing and turning, unable to find a comfortable position. His gave up and started to count sheep in a last-ditch attempt to fall asleep. The boredom was becoming insufferable.

_46 little sheepies , 47 little sheepies, 48 little sheepies..._

His stream of thoughts was interrupted by a noise from the other side of the room.

The candle was still going strong, seemingly lit by magic.

"Mr. Feathers, come back! Don't leave me, Mr. Feathers! You're my favourite teddy bear, I promise!", Ginny started to softly moan.

_Perfect blackmail material, _thought Draco to himself.

"Nooo, Mr. Feathers! Don't go!".

Draco was starting to have mixed feelings. She seemed really upset. She was obviously talking in her sleep.

Ginny got to her feet and started to sleepwalk towards the other side. She was headed towards Draco.

Her eyes were slightly open but she didn't seem to know that she was awake.

"Mr. Feathers, I'm coming back for you!", she called out.

Draco quickly moved out of the way. He didn't want to get involved in this. Ginny had other plans.

"No, , don't run away from me!"

She turned towards Draco again and started to walk toward him.

He started to panic now. The Weasel thinks I'm her teddy bear!, he thought to himself horrified.

What followed next was a game of Catch Me If You can with Draco trying his best to run away from Ginny's clutches. It wasnt easy because the room was so tiny, but Draco did manage to dodge the red headed girl for quite some time before he was captured by the enemy.

"I finally have you, !"

With that Ginny rushed into Draco and hugged him fiercely pinning his arms against his side. Draco was not expecting such force and both toppled over onto the ground.

Ginny nestled her head against his chest. "Don't ever leave me again, Mr. Feathers!", she mumbled.

Draco tried his best to wrestle free but the girl had an iron grip. He gave up, resigned to his fate.

In a minute, Ginny was snoring softly again, her body heaving against his with every breath.

Draco, with some struggled, managed to get his arms free and having done so, decided to assess the situation.

He couldn't get her off him, that was obvious so there wasnt any option left for him except to fall asleep.

He turned slightly, so that Ginny was now partly on the ground instead of right on top him. Her arms were still latches around him.

_What would Blaise say if he saw me right now _...Draco thought ruefully.

Her body was warm and as much as he would have liked to deny it, it was better than lying in the cold floor alone. She had a slender build but she definitely wasn't a weakling. Her breath tickled his neckband made goosebumps rise on his arms.

His arms were in an awkward position and he had no option except to place his arms on top of Ginny who was currently lying across his body.

He had never been so close with a girl without having...well...you know what. And even then he didn't stay for long. He had never actually_ slept _with a girl in the completely literal sense. And he kind of liked it.

As Ginny placed her arms around him, he felt for the first time that someone actually wanted him. Of course, Ginny had thought that he was her teddy bear and that was the only reason that she even approached him in the first place. He had been with many girls before, after all, that was the source of his many boasts, but never had he felt that someone actually wanted him.

Not his money, not his looks, not his status, just him.

He liked this feeling. Being wanted.

Too bad, he was only wanted by a delusional, sleep talking teenage girl who thought he was a living teddy bear.

A small voice asked him, in the back of his head, whether it was really the feeling of _being wanted _or _being wanted by the girl lying across him_ that made him feel so good but he quickly dismissed that thought.

He sighed, thinking about what a sap he had become and as he fell asleep, his head drooped and fell onto Ginny's hair.

**XXXXXXX**

**A/N: Getting somewhere now, aren't we? ;) Stay tuned for more!**

**THANK YOU FOR READING AND PLEASE REVIEW! (*Flashes brilliant smile)**

**For next update, check my profile! :)**

To GingerHannah: Your review made cry because I was laughing so much. You made my day.


	17. Chapter 17: The Aftermath

**It's finally up! So sorry for the delay, folks! I was having a hard time writing this chapter. Anyway, enjoy and le time know what you think!**

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Ginny was dreaming.

She was hugging her and all was well. had his arms around her too. In her dream, was living and she could feel his breath on her neck. ,

Her eyes fluttered a little and she raised her head slightly before putting it back down on 's body. His body was nice and warm. Ginny felt happier than she had been in a long time.

A little gush of air from Draco's open mouth hit Ginny's ears and made her wake up.

She opened her eyes groggily, trying to make sense of her surroundings. It came back to her slowly, the late night trip to the library, Madam Pince, and Filch, the trick wall, Draco...Draco!

She sat up straight and for the first time realised what position she was in. She was currently on top of Draco and was straddling him with her legs.

Unfortunately, Draco woke up at that moment. His bleary eyes met hers before...

"AHHHHHHH!", she screamed and quickly got off..

"You...you! You...tried to rape me!" She accused.

"By Merlin's pants, what are you talking about Weasley?" shouted Draco back.

She was trying to take deep breaths to clam herself.

"You saw what position I was in...it can mean only one thing! You tried to rape me!", she accused once again.

"No I didn't! In case you don't remember, it was YOU who came onto me last night!"

"Nonsense! I would never do that!", shouted back Ginny.

She then started to cry.

Draco was bewildered.

"For God's sake, it isn't what you think it is!"

"Of course you would say that!", she wailed between sobs.

"Look down, Weasley!"

"So you can put a sack on my head, strangle me, and finish what you did?!", retorted Ginny before breaking into fresh sobs.

Malfoy was grabbing at his hair by now.

"No! I meant that wouldn't your clothes be in disarray if what you think happened actually happened? Look down! Tell me if they're in disarray!"

Ginny looked down slowly. Her clothes were for the most part in place, given that she just woke from slumber.

She turned her eyes back up and softly said, "Oh." She looked extremely sheepish.

Draco let out a sigh of relief.

Ginny coughed and cleared her throat before speaking. "So should we try to see if the wall has opened, yet?".

Draco just nodded. Ginny walked over to the side where they had tumbled in the night before and placed her hand against the wall. It immediately went through. The wall was open.

She looked over at Draco and then walked through, stepping out into the corridor. Draco followed her outside.

They headed to their respective dorms to freshen up before the match.

It was still early in the morning when Ginny entered the Common Room. It was still empty as not many students had woken up yet.

She quickly scampered up the staircase hoping that no one discovered her absence from the night before.

She tip-toed up the stairs silently and gently twisted the handle of her dorm to open the door with as little noise as possible.

She opened the door only enough for herself to slip in and turned to quickly jump into her bed to pretend that she had been there the whole time.

Well, she was about to until she caught sight of Emily sitting on her bed and staring at her.

Emily arched an eyebrow.

"Mind telling me what you've been up to?", she asked.

Ginny frantically tried to think up a plausible excuse." Uh...I woke early and decided to take a walk down by the lake. To ease my nerves for the match today."

Emily still looked slightly suspicious.

"And that was why you tried to sneak back in like a theif?", she asked.

Ginny looked sheepish.

"You were always a bad liar, Gin", she proclaimed before diving back under her covers, trying to catch a few more moments of sleep.

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Ginny was thankful that Emily hadnt decided to question her further because she was sure she would end up blurting out the complete truth if she did. God only knew for how long she would be teased abut it by her best friend if she ever found out the happenings of the previous night.

She was walking with Emily and the Gryffindor members of the Quidditch team towards the pitch. The match was due to start in a half hour, and they were looking forward to having a short practice session before the match began.

When they met Malfoy, Zabini, Thames, and Nott, Finny and Malfoy avoided each other's eyes. A fact which did not go wasted on Emily. Of course, they weren't the only ones who were doing it, the same could be said of Thames and Nott.

Soon enough, they were done with practice and the rest of school filed into the stands to watch the game. The team headed into the changing rooms while Emily, Ron, and Hermione walked up the stairs of the stands to get good seats.

They sat down in the middle row of the topmost box when suddenly Ron pointed to a figure in the stand opposite to them.

"What in hell is Luna wearing?!", he exclaimed.

The girls craned their necks to get a better view. Ron fished out his Omnicukars from his satchel and took a closer look before handing the lenses to Hermione.

"Oh my...that is quite an impressive piece of magic.", Hermione said softly as she looked at Luna.

She then handed the Omniculars to Emily.

Emily looked through them, curious.

Luna was wearing a hat.

Not just any old hat, but a hat upon which sat an authentic looking eagle. What made it impressive was that the eagle was moving and cawing as If it was real and the echoes of the sounds it made could be heard from across the pitch.

"Oh my...", said Emily, mirroring Hermione's reaction.

"I think I can fix that...", said Hermione softly before taking her wand out.

She pointed it directly at Luna's hat and muttered an incantation.

Flitwick would have been proud.

The eagle immediately disappeared and what replaced it was a larger than life lion whose roar was louder than the eagle's caws were.

The students sitting around Luna jumped with shock, with one little first year boy falling out of his seat.

Luna had a mildly surprised expression as she took her hat down to inspect the changes made to it.

She wasnt much put-off to see that a lion replaced her eagle.

_Must be the Wrakspurts sending an omen_, she thought to herself before shrugging and putting the hat back on. Her housemates around her wore incredulous expressions.

Meanwhile in the Gryffindor and Slyhterinstanda,here was an outbreak of laughter with Hermione receiving many a Paton the back for a job well done. Ron looked to be almost glowing with pride for the girl sitting beside him.

Eily was appreciative of Hermione's magic as well. It took skill to aim at a target from such a distance.

The players of both teams had walked onto the pitch by now. Dean had taken over the commentator's match and the game was about to begin.

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The hall was filled with yells and cheers as the Gryffindor and Slytherin houses marched back to their Common Rooms. They had won!

The mood was infectious in the Gryffindor Common Room where the after-party had begun and music filled the air as people danced and swayed to it.

Ginny was seated in an armchair with Emily beside her, both girls clutching bottles of butter-beer and chatting with Ron and Harry about the finer technical aspects of the game that they had just played.

Right now, though, Ron and Harry were diverted as they heatedly argued over a little known Quidditch rule and whether referees still enforced that rule or not.

The girls had better sense than to join the verbal melee and they were left talking to each other about trivial things.

"So, Gin, you still haven't told me what exactly you were up to last night.", Emily sked knowing that she had corned Ginny effectively.

Ginny stumbled upon her own words and was trying to think up of something to say when Blaise came up to them.

"Dance with me, Pratcher?"

Emily was taken by surprise but still managed to nod her head and smile. Blaise helped her up and took her onto the dance floor set up in the middle of the Common Room.

Ginny had never been as thankful as she was to Zabini at that instant and would have been willing to kiss him if he had asked her to.

Harry on the other hand was looking particularly murderous.

She leaned back into the arm-chair with a sigh of relief and sipped her butter beer. She was listening intently to Ron and Harry's argument when Emily returned about twenty minutes later, looking flushed but happy.

Ginny raised her eyebrows suggestively at her and looked pointedly at Blaise who was getting drinks for the girls.

"Oh hush!", pleaded Emily but smiled nonetheless. Blaise walked over with glasses of pumpkin punch in his hands and handed them around before taking the seat next to Emily.

He wasnt completely unaware of the death-glares sent to him by Harry and called over to Draco to join them. He might as well have back-up if anything got nasty.

Draco hesitated but made his way over to them anyway. He summoned a chair from across the room leaving a fourth year with a sore bum lying in the floor as the chair he had been about to sit in was whisked away.

Blaise raised his glass of punch and toasted, " To our victory!", and then drank his glass in one gulp.

"You do know that this is only punch, right, Zabini?", asked Ginny.

"Just drink, Weasley.", commanded Draco.

Everyone, including Ron and Harry raised their glasses and gulped down their juice.

Emily spluttered and coughed as the drink slid down her throat. "Who was the idiot who spiked the punch", she asked irritatedly. She had a low tolerance for alcohol.

Blaise looked at Draco annoyed.

Draco smiled back innocently, "Oh I don't know", he responded with an angelic look on his face.

"It's actually good", said Ron grudgingly. "What did you add, Malfoy?"

"I didn't add anything", still trying to maintain his innocence, "although, a little bit of Ogden's Firewhiskey might have found its way into the bowl", he said with a smile.

"Hmm, I have got to try that Firewhiskey", said Ron to himself.

The group was engaged in small talk as everyone drank a few more glasses of punch. Malfoy had persuaded Emily to try another glass of the punch despite her misgivings.

By the end of two glasses, she was already slightly tipsy.

"So, Ginny, you never did tell me what you were up to last night...", Emily asked Ginny.

Ginny's face turned red. The others had heard what Emily had said.

"I told you Em, I went for a walk", she said forcefully trying to make her best friend stop with he eline of questioning.

"You can't fool me, Ginevra Weasley, I caught you and Malfoy avoiding each other like the plague today!"

Ginny and Draco groaned simultaneously. Emily was too observant for her own good.

"I told you, I went for a walk", she repeated hoping that Em would get the signal to shut up.

Blaise joined in at this instant.

"What 'bout you Draco, why weren't you in bed last night, eh?"

Draco cursed. So Blaise had noticed after all.

Ron was turning a dangerous red, and was jumping to conclusions.

Ginny took one look at her brother before protesting, "No, it wasnt like that at all!"

"Or was it?", asked Emily between giggles.

Ginny made a mental note not to let Emily within a five hundred yard range of alcohol ever again.

Draco quickly explained why he decided to go out, and about the tip he received about the enemy team's game plan. Ginny explained how she happened to find him and how they got caught in the library. Draco then finished it up by telling them how they got trapped in the trick wall until the morning.

"So you had one of the greatest adventures of all time, and you failed to tell me about it?", asked a Blaise incredulously.

"No, wait, there's more!", announced Emily dramatically. "That doesn't explain why they won't look at each other!"

Ron felt she had a point. "Yea, that doesn't explain it all!", he protested.

"Fine! You wanna know?" Ginny shouted. "My problem happened last night!"

Harry, Emily, and Ron, who were the only people, along with Hermione, who knew about her " " problem looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!". Ron was gasping for air.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahaah!", choked Harry as he tried to regain his breath.

"Ahahah...", Emily was in hysterics and no sound was coming out of her mouth.

Draco and Blaise were looking bewildered at the three. Draco, because that wasn't the reaction he was expecting and Blaise, because he didn't fully understand.

Ginny was looking annoyed as she waited for the three to put a stop to her giggles.

"Poor, poor Draco!", exclaimed Emily, who had been a victim of Ginny's as well.

"Feel truly sorry for ya, Malfoy!", said Ron surprisingly. God only knew how many times he had nearly been strangled by Ginny in her sleep.

Harry was still unable to catch his breath.

"Would someone mind filling me in on this?", asked Blaise loudly.

Emily turned to him and explained in a solemn voice, a stark contrast to her giggles just a minute ago,

"Ginny here has long been afflicted with what we call the syndrome. Over the years, having become accustomed to having her teddy bear with her at night at all times, she faces a severe withdrawal symptom when he is not present with her. She then turns into a madwoman at night, grabbing the nearest person to her and choking the life out of them, thinking that he/she is her . The syndrome often results in bodily harm to the person nearest to her and a risk to life.

Previous attempts to admit her to 's have failed as she insists that she is not a grave risk to humanity.

"So how was your near-death experience, Malfoy?", Emily asked, unable to keep a straight face towards the end.

"I saw my life flashing before my eyes", he answered gravely which sent the group into giggles once more, this time even Blaise joining in.

Ginny made a noise of irritation and made her way up the dorm stairs. "I'm done with you lot!", she shouted at them.

_It's a perfectly normal problem to have, _she assured herself. She took out from her dresser and placed him on her bed.

_They don't know how sweet you are, , so don't get insulted by them, _ she warned her teddy-bear before hugging him. She set him on her bed and spent the half hour before lunch, sulking.

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**A/N: So the chapter's up, finally! Leave a review please and tell me what you think! And again, I'm sorry for the delay!**

**THANK YOU FOR READING**

Xx

**Preview of Chapter 18:**

Professor McGonagall stood to address the Great Hall.

"We are pleased to announce that Hogswarts will be organising..."


End file.
